title: The role of perceived threat in the survival processing memory advantage.
abstract: Information that is processed in relation to survival tends to promote superior recall relative to other elaborate encoding manipulations (e.g., Nairne, Thompson, & Pandeirada, 2007). The current research examines whether perceived threat plays a role in the survival processing memory advantage. In the current experiment survival processing was manipulated such that participants were presented with an ancestral (grasslands) or modern (city) context, and either a low, medium, or high threat level. The results revealed a strong survival processing advantage, with the magnitude of the advantage related to level of perceived threat. The findings as a whole suggest that perceived threat contributes to the recall advantage.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , State University of New York , Binghamton , NY , USA.
authors.forename: Justin M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Olds
authors.forename: Meredith
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lanska
authors.forename: Deanne L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Westerman
mesh_terms: D000339:Affect; D003643:Death; D004777:Environment; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D008606:Mental Processes / Q000502:physiology*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D010465:Perception / Q000502:physiology; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D013534:Survival / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult