Memory

New Understanding of How We Remember Traumatic Events
In this article it is discussed that long-term memory can stay in your memory with strong emotions like fear, love and rage. Experiencing a traumatic event makes our memory of that event stick with us. During the study of the amygdala, Queensland Brain institute have discovered a cellular mechanism that forms emotional memories, which occurs with the presence of stress hormone. Dr. Luis Faber and his colleagues showed how noradrenalin affect the amygdala by controlling chemical and electrical pathways in the brain responsible for chemical formation. His discoveries can contribute to the formation of new treatments for anxiety disorder or post-traumatic disorder.
"ScienceDaily 29 October 2008. 27 October 2010 /releases/2008/10/081028103111.htm>."

Some Short-term Memories Die Suddenly, No fading
New research has shown that we can retain memory of an object’s color or shape for at least four seconds. After that the memory remains quite accurate until it suddenly disappears. A test regarding the accuracy of short-term visual memory was performed by Weiwei Zhang and Steve Luck. The test measured two things, the accuracy of short-term memory and the probability that the memory still existed. The first experiment consisted of having 3 squares, each with different colors, after one four or 10 seconds the entire spectrum of color was provided. Then the three squares reappear, only this time they are colorless and one of them is highlighted. The subjects are asked to recall the color of the highlighted square and select the color on the spectrum of color that mostly matched. The second experiment was the same only that it was done with shapes. When the subjects retained the color they clicked very close into the wheel of color, the distance between the selected color and the actual color determined the accuracy of the memory. When color had disappeared from memory the people selected random colors. The findings demonstrated that memory does not start degrading it just simply fades. This might help in everyday life since it helps us avoid the confusion of making decisions on weak, inaccurate memories.
"ScienceDaily 30 April 2009. 27 October 2010 /releases/2009/04/090429091806.htm>."

The Language of Emotion
In this recent findings by Stefano Puntoni and Stijn Van Osselaer argue that consumers find advertisements in their native language connected to more emotions then when the advertisements are in their second language. They studied bilingual and trilingual participants in Europe. They tested different slogans with participants and tested how the message was perceived. This is due to the attachment with the ad and the person’s personal memories and the language context in which those memories were generated. Hearing or reading a word from the ad, unconsciously trigger memories in which the word played a role. This can help companies to advertise their products in the language that belongs to the place they are intended to sell.
"Tongues Connect To Consumers' Emotions." ScienceDaily 22 December 2008. 27 October 2010 /releases/2008/12/081215111433.htm>. "