It's the weekend before Halloween, and many of the decorations and activities at this time of the year are meant to be scary. If you're a parent, you may also have very happy emotions associated with Halloween and this time of year, visiting pumpkin patches, carving pumpkins, and helping your kids dress up in costumes and trick-or-treating together. (Note, if you do have kids trick-or-treating, or going out for Halloween, you may like last year's digest: teaching kids about safety.) Or, perhaps you and your family is not celebrating Halloween, and there are emotions associated with others celebrating it.

Regardless, the theme here is emotions. We're often asked by your students in class, on Twitter, and by those who follow our blog, how does emotion affect memory? In this week's digest, we put together some resources about the relationship between emotion and memory.

1) Enhancing Memory - The Role of Emotion by SAF host Alan Alda, with Jim McGaugh and Larry Cahill

In this video, Alan Alda talks to memory experts about how emotions can enhance memory. Included in this video is an explanation of the "Ice-Water Experiment."

2) The selective effects of emotional arousal on memory by Mara Mather and Matthew Sutherland, American Psychological Association Science Brief

In this science brief, the authors (both memory researchers and academics) describe how arousal enhances or reduces memory depending on the perceived priority of the information. 

3) The role of emotion in memory by Dr. Fiona McPherson, @mempower

Emotions are complex, and thus it is not surprising that the emotions and memory is a complex issue. Dr. Fiona McPherson discusses the role of emotions in the content you are trying to remember and the role of your own emotional state during learning and remembering.

5) You Have No Idea What Happened by Maria Konnikova, The New Yorker

In this article, memories for highly emotional events or flashbulb memories, such as the Challenger explosion, are discussed. We often are highly confident that we have accurate flashbulb memories. But, as is discussed in the article, our confidence does not mean that we are accurate.

5) Emotions and Memory by Psychologist World

This piece asks the question: How do your emotions affect your ability to remember information and recall post memories?

Every Sunday, we pick a theme and provide a curated list of links. If you have a theme suggestion, please don’t hesitate to contact us! Occasionally we publish a guest digest, and If you'd like to propose a guest digest click here. Our 5 most recent digests can be found here:

Weekly Digest #78: How to Motivate Children to Learn

Weekly Digest #79: Resources for Teaching about Racism and Bias, Part 1

Weekly Digest #80: Resources for Teaching about Racism and Bias, Part 2

Weekly Digest #81: Classroom Research

Weekly Digest #82: How to Successfully Bust Myths