Ye & Ke (2026)

Emotion enhances relative but not absolute temporal memory: A meta-analysis

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 33(3)

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DOI

Reference

Ye, Q., & Ke, C. (2026). Emotion enhances relative but not absolute temporal memory: A meta-analysis. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 33(3). https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-025-02783-6

What Rests on This

1 mechanism cites this source. Each finding below is quoted as it appears on that mechanism's own page.

Temporal Placement Memory Processes

Definition

Relative temporal memory (which event came first, or which phase an item belonged to) is separable from absolute temporal memory (how far apart or how long ago): a meta-analysis found emotion improves the first but not the second
Measured in humans

The standard tests are temporal order and recency judgments (which of two items came first), temporal source judgments (which phase an item came from) and temporal distance judgments. A three-level meta-analysis pooled 33 studies (44 experiments, 79 effect sizes) of these tests, finding emotion improved order memory (g = 0.35, 95% CI 0.11 to 0.59) and source memory (g = 0.28) but not distance judgments (g = 0.06)