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The Psychology of Salience and Emotionally Salient Memories

Writer's picture: Catherine Ann WhiteCatherine Ann White

Salience is the property by which something stands out. It refers to prominence. In a sea of sensory information, salience causes us to detect and attend to stimuli or factors that are of importance. In this process, an organism’s perception focuses on pertinent specific sensory stimuli, weeding out the vast amount of other information in our environment.



There are things that stir our senses, aspects that make us feel more alive, or experiences that we just cannot forget. Salient moments can enliven our attention, embed a vivid memory, cause a visceral reaction, or even cause us to feel more connected to life.


Read on to learn about the types of salience, the ways in which emotional salience increase memory, and understand that value of salience in human experience.


Types of Salience


Saliency affects human cognition and strengthens learning and memory. Separating the distinct from the unimportant allows our brain to focus on what is critical for survival. Let’s consider the different types of salience.


Perceptual Salience: When something is perceptually salient, it overrides your senses, such as something bright or loud or fast moving. For example, when a loud and fast motorcycle travels down the street, you may suddenly pay attention to it and notice it until it is out of sight.



Cognitive Salience: Thoughts that have cognitive salience keep our attention and remain mentally prominent. For example, if you are driving home from a new place, you may recall and attend only to the landmarks that directed you to originally find your destination.


Emotional Salience: This describes something that has emotional significance to you. For example, if you have a crush on someone, you might pay much more attention to that person than to others. You may also spend more time thinking of that person than thinking of other things.


Salience of the Unique: Things that are less usual stand out over aspects that are commonplace. For example, someone walking down the street with a mohawk will probably get your attention over others that have typical hair styles.


Motivational Salience: This is a biological state where you notice something related to a desire or need. For example, if you felt an itch on your leg, you may look for bumps to find a place where you can scratch. If you are hungry, you may pay more attention to the smell of food to find out where you can eat.


Goal-Directed Salience: When you want to do something, you will attend to whatever will allow you to achieve that function. For example, if you are want to get home faster after being out, you might attend to areas of traffic to find a better route.



Social Salience: Humans are social beings. When you look at a photo, you will probably focus on the faces and expressions of people in the photo instead of background imagery.


Cultural Salience: You may notice a cultural trend to which you wish to align. For example, if your peers only talk about pop culture, you will discuss less in-depth topics with them in order to be accepted.


Salience of Adaptiveness: In this process, a person filters out stimuli of no worth. For example, if you are reading at a coffee shop, you may attend less to the conversations of others or the surrounding sounds and focus only on your book.


Memory Salience: This is the process by which something stands out in your memory versus all other occurrences that do not pique your attention. For example, if a loved one passes a way, the memory of their funeral might stand out in your mind much more than a simple conversation you had with that person.



Though there are many types of saliency, some have more impact than others. I am particularly interested in salient memories that stand out in our human experience. The most pronounced form of salience are experiences that have an emotional impact on us and promote recall.



Emotional Salience and Memory


Scientists have linked the attentional and motivational components of emotion to heightened learning and memory (Pekrun, 1992; Seli et al., 2016). Emotion affects nearly all human cognitive processes. These cognitions include:

  • Attention

  • Perception

  • Learning

  • Memory

  • Problem Solving

  • Reasoning

Human evolution developed from the process of emotionally enhanced memory retention. As we developed, we increasingly responded to environmental events that, through trial and error, had a greater impact on our progression. Through repetition, these behavioral patterns became reinforced. As reinforcement occurred, learning became genetically embedded.



A salient emotional memory correlates with the impact that experience had on the individual. Research, such as (Conway et al., 1994), shows that emotionally charged memories are better retrieved than neutral ones. Thus, experiences or stimuli that cause heightened emotional arousal produce more accurate and vivid recall.


My Personal Experience with Salient Memories


There are moments that stand out in my life that I recall with great clarity. Remembering these events evokes the emotions I originally felt at the time of the event. The emotional impact of these moments allows me to hold them with value and importance.


For me, salient memories feel poetic and powerful. They have a liveliness to them. I recall them with detail and vividness. Here are just a few:


… When, as a young child, I heard the school bell ring on the Friday afternoon of the last day of school and I knew I could spend my entire summer playing outside, sleeping in, having sleepovers, and going away to the beach.



… When I first told a boy that I loved him, my stomach turning with raw nervousness and excitement, and I stood unsteady, exposed to the real possibility that he may not love me back.


… The memory of being with my mother as I felt the warm, wet and fragrant vapors of steam on my face as I stood by the oven and stirred the soup that she was making for a winter day’s meal.


… When I said goodbye to my parents as I went away to college, my mother holding back the tears and my father holding her hand so tightly that, when I saw this, I realized they had given every part of themselves for me to succeed at that very moment and every moment before it.


… When I first held my baby niece and there were no words to describe the miracle of her breathing in those tiny breaths, needing all of me so completely that I questioned everything I ever knew about myself.


… The night I met my college best friend at a party — a night that the hours were slipping away as we shared stories, philosophies, and anecdotes and I realized how powerful human connection can be.


… When I said my vows on my wedding day, taking in the inexplicable glory of another human being promising to honor me, love me and to be true even when our love were to become commonplace or when life would be unkind.


… When my loved one was dying right before me — the moment just before the tears and the audible crying — when my chest filled with an emptiness so horrible that the stark finality of total loss suffocated me.


Sometimes we are shocked awake — soulfully connected to how remarkable life can be. In these glorious moments, we truly pay attention. Such moments can be astounding, touching the core of what it means to be human and to be alive.



The Value of Salient Memories


The older we get, electrifying experiences and memories are valuable. Moments of connection, moments of importance, and moments of clarity occur amidst the mundane, smacking us right in the face to say that life can be quite remarkable. Such times remind us that this life does not last forever and life and living are sacred.


What are your salient memories?


I encourage everyone to recall and share their salient life experiences. When we do, we remember that bestowed on us is a gift, the knowledge that life has richness, purpose, and value… something we too often forget.


So, think back. Remind yourself of your moments of value. One day, these memories will be the things by which you measure your life. In the end, this will be what you hold most dear.




 

To learn more about psychology and how to improve yourself and the wellbeing of others, keep checking the MINDDESIGNMEDIA Psychology Blog.


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