Researchers at Brigham Young University discovered that babies are more likely to remember things that trigger positive emotions.

 

"People study memory in infants, they study discrimination in emotional affect, but we are the first ones to study how these emotions influence memory," lead author Ross Flom, a psychology¹ professor at Brigham Young University, said in a press release.

 

Flom and his team monitored the eye movements of a group of five-month-olds who were placed in front of a computer screen and exposed to a person speaking to them with either a happy, neutral or angry voice. The babies were immediately shown a geometric shape after the emotional exposure.

 

Researchers tested infant memory by showing the babies the shapes three times: the first time, 5 minutes after and a day later. Then the babies were exposed to two side-by-side geometric shapes: a brand new one, and the original one from the previous test.

 

After analyzing² eye movements, researchers discovered that babies were significantly more likely to remember shapes paired with positive voices.

 

"We think what happens is that the positive affect heightens the babies' attentional system and arousal," Flom concluded. "By heightening those systems, we heighten their ability to process and perhaps remember this geometric pattern."

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