Effect of emotion on hippocampal-dependent associative binding through the lens of the weather prediction task

We investigated the impact of negative emotion on hippocampal-dependent associative memory through the "weather prediction task," which distinguishes between hippocampal (declarative) and striatal (procedural) memory systems. This was achieved by comparing the “paired-associates” condition, where participants memorise associations between cues and outcomes, with the “feedback” condition, where they learn these associations through trial-and-error. Based on the dual representation theory, we hypothesized that negative emotion would selectively impair hippocampal-dependent memory but instead found substantial evidence for a null effect of emotion. Across three experiments, the third of which employed a sequential design with Bayesian statistics and a sample of 800 participants, negative emotion did not decrease associative memory accuracy in the hippocampal-dependent “paired-associates” condition. These results challenge the dual representation theory, at least in the context of nontraumatic, controlled laboratory conditions.