Dissociable age-dependent effects of emotion on scene and location memory.

Emotional foreground images enhanced memory accuracy for the foreground but at the expense of background scene memory.

• 165 adults (83 female) between 21 and 67 years of age were tested
• Participants viewed scenes composed of emotional (positive or negative) or neutral foreground images superimposed on neutral backgrounds
• Memory for the emotional foreground was more accurate compared to neutral foreground
• This emotional enhancement of foreground memory came at the cost of reduced background scene memory

Scene memory declined across aging, with the decline being particularly pronounced for scenes with positive foreground images.

• A general age-related decline in scene memory was observed across participants aged 21 to 67
• The interaction between age and positive emotional foreground images was specifically associated with worse scene memory
• This suggests that positive emotion modulation of scene memory is disproportionately affected by aging

Emotion enhanced spatial location memory (quadrant memory), but this benefit significantly decreased with age.

• Emotional foreground images improved memory for the quadrant of the screen in which the scene was presented
• The emotional enhancement of spatial location memory showed a significant age-related decrease
• This age-dependent decline in emotional benefit for location memory was dissociable from effects on scene memory
• The dissociation indicates that aging differentially affects how emotion modulates different types of spatial context memory

Depression was correlated with poorer memory overall, while anxiety was correlated with better memory, but neither significantly interacted with emotional modulation of memory.

• Self-report surveys of depression and anxiety were administered to account for mental health-related individual variability
• Depression showed a negative correlation with memory performance
• Anxiety showed a positive correlation with memory performance
• Neither depression nor anxiety significantly interacted with the emotional modulation of spatial location or scene memory

The study found dissociable age-dependent effects of emotion on two types of spatial context memory: scene memory and spatial location memory.

• Emotion impaired scene memory but enhanced spatial location memory
• Aging differentially altered these emotional modulation effects depending on the type of spatial context
• Positive emotion was specifically linked to greater age-related decline in scene memory
• Emotional benefit for spatial location memory decreased significantly with age, providing evidence that aging alters contextual binding processes