Memory reconstruction can be studied not only in terms of
memory, but also studied as a way of measuring how people process experience.
How a person reconstructs an experience can demonstrate how they initially processed
the experience considering that remembered details are also details that the
person noticed and was attentive to.
An article** in the Journal
of Nonverbal Behavior called “Aging and the Effects of Facial and Prosodic
Cues on Emotional Intensity Ratings and Memory Reconstructions” recounts a
study in which reconstruction is both a method of measuring and a factor that
should be measured. The study experimented with age and how it effects the
ability to both show and pick up on nonverbal emotional cues both in the expression
of the face and language (prosody). The study wanted to test the theory that
with age our ability to process and understand nonverbal emotional cues lowers.
This idea conflicts with another theory that as we age our predilection for
absorbing emotional rather than informational details is heightened. One
possible reason for why it may seem older persons have a lower emotional
capacity is due to the wrinkled skin affecting the emotional showcases on the
face, which is why the study included prosodic, vocal emotional cues.
The study consisted of two experiments. The first experiment
involved having young (approximately 23 years) and old (approximately 77 years)
participants watch two young actresses have an “emotionally laden” conversation.
How the participants processed the conversation was based on the reconstruction
of the memory of the emotional aspects of the conversation between the actresses.
In the second experiment, the actress’s ages were changed to match the age of
the participants. The first experiment found that older adults were not as good
at picking up on nonverbal emotional cues as the younger participants. The
second experiment, however, showed that participants’ ability to pick up on
nonverbal emotional cues both in voice and face was not dependent on age when
the participants were the same age as the actresses.
So, the wrinkles may be to blame for someone thinking their
grandma is a cold-hearted emotional wasteland. The study shows that both
emotional output and understanding does not decline with age. I feel like it is
rather our youth-centric society that might lead us to believe so. For example,
how does a middle-aged person with multiple face lifts exude emotion
differently from a person the same age without the work done? Arguably the
facelift has an aging effect as far as the ability to communicate emotional
nonverbal cues, hence a possible favoritism of facial appearance over functionality.
An interesting study might be to just actors on their emotional “readability,”
post and prior getting work done. I’m sure there are physical therapists that
help patients who had work done with facial expressions, especially after procedures
that involve tightening or plumping of the face where muscles might be numbed. I
bet there is a relationship between getting “facially restrictive” work done
and a heightened use of prosodic nonverbal cues to communicate emotion. In
other words, people who got work done on their face might speak more dramatically
as compensation. How does the reconstruction of the face affect the
reconstruction of emotional memories? Basically, I am just replacing the age
variable with a plastic surgery variable.
Memory reconstruction is an interesting way of judging the
initial processing of an experience. I have to question, however, how other
factors might play into the reconstruction of memory. For example, if the participant
remembered something based on their own emotional experience and projected that
onto the actress regardless of her nonverbal emotional cues. The actress could,
for example, be talking angrily about one time a neighbor didn’t clean up after
a pet and she got dog doo on her shoe. Now if the participant just, let’s say,
lost a pet to a car accident, they might attribute their sad emotions to an
experience the actress is trying to communicate with angry nonverbal cues. The
distance between experiencing and remembering I would argue is neither direct
nor dependable. Not to say reconstruction should not be used to judge
processing of experience (as it is pretty much the only method of communicating
experience). The study, though I’m sure they were taken, did not mention when
after the participants saw the conversation between actresses they were
questioned. I argue it should be immediately to cut out time for reflection. Also,
what might disqualify a participant who might not be reliable in only
interpreting the emotional aspects of the nonverbal cues. If, for example, a
participant had a thing against redheads. Let’s say their husband cheated on
them with a redhead and so all redheaded females are construed as being aggressive
and lascivious. If one of the actresses had red hair then the experiment is affected
by a bias that the experimenters have no way of knowing about.
Regardless, I do think the study points out a human bias of
age and experience that should be noted. To me it makes sense that older people
would have an easier time of judging the emotional nonverbal cues of people
their age. I’ve always thought that my grandmother didn’t react strongly to
certain situations because she has “seen it all” and has much more life
experience than I do. But, while she does have more life experience that is no
reason why her emotional reaction to a situation might seem less severe as
mine. My grandmother may have an even stronger emotional response to a
situation, and I just have a more difficult time picking up on her nonverbal
emotional cues. With the study in mind, I will perhaps pay closer attention to
her prosodic rather than her facial cues when I’m trying to determine her
emotional reaction. I also will apply the same principles when judging someone
who has undergone face-altering plastic surgery.
**The article can be found in the Pratt Library social science database**
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