Psychopathic traits were not significantly associated with recall or recognition of emotional or neutral stimuli, according to a recent study published in the journal Memory.
Psychopathy is characterized by interpersonal, affective, and lifestyle traits, such as a lack of empathy and impulsivity. In this work Rheanna J. Remmel and colleagues clarified how psychopathic traits might influence memory for emotional events, a function typically heightened by emotional valence. Despite existing evidence linking psychopathy to impaired emotional processing, the relationship between psychopathy and emotional memory remains unclear, with previous studies offering conflicting results.
The authors were motivated by findings that individuals with psychopathic traits might show diminished preferential recall for emotional stimuli, which could impact learning from negative experiences and social bonding.
The researchers recruited 82 male inmates from a county jail, ranging in age from 18 to 59 (average age of ~ 29 years). Psychopathic traits were assessed using the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV), which evaluates interpersonal, affective, and behavioral components of psychopathy. Memory abilities were measured using the Wechsler Memory Scale-IV (WMS-IV), which included tasks assessing auditory and visuospatial memory.
The emotional memory task involved presenting participants with 32 images sourced from the International Affective Picture System and similar databases. These images were divided into three categories: positive (e.g., happy family), negative (e.g., a man holding a gun), and neutral (e.g., a cereal bowl). Each image was shown for two seconds, followed by a delay of at least 15 minutes during which participants completed other cognitive tasks.
In the recall phase, participants verbally described as many images as they could remember. A recognition task followed, requiring participants to identify previously viewed images from a randomized mix of the original set and new, similarly valenced images. Attention and effort were controlled using standardized tools like the Symbol Digit Modalities Test and Dot Counting Test.
The researchers found that psychopathic traits were not significantly associated with participants’ ability to recall or recognize emotional stimuli. Across the sample, participants showed a general tendency to recall positive and negative images more frequently than neutral ones, confirming the typical memory advantage for emotionally valenced stimuli. However, psychopathy scores, whether analyzed as a total or by Factor 1 (interpersonal and affective traits) and Factor 2 (behavioral and antisocial traits), did not predict differences in this pattern.
Similarly, recognition accuracy showed no significant relationship with psychopathy, though exploratory analyses suggested a slight trend where individuals with higher Factor 1 traits performed worse in recognizing both positive and negative images compared to neutral ones.
In non-emotional memory tasks, psychopathy scores were also unrelated to performance. Participants demonstrated typical recall and recognition abilities in both auditory and visuospatial domains, as measured by the WMS-IV.
These findings suggest that the presence of psychopathic traits does not impair general memory functioning or preferential emotional memory processing. Instead, any observed trends in emotional memory appear to be minor and non-significant.
Overall, the study challenges assumptions about a robust link between psychopathy and emotional memory deficits, highlighting the need for further exploration possibly using more intense or socially complex emotional stimuli.
Of note is that the exclusively male sample limits the generalizability of results across genders.
The research, “Effects of psychopathic traits on preferential recall and recognition of emotionally evocative photos,” was authored by Rheanna J. Remmel, Andrea L. Glenn, and Alexandra P. Harrison.
