Psychology Commons^™

The Effect Of Caffeine On Relationship Memory, Elsa Carodenuto

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Recollections of participants’ last failed relationship (first meeting, first kiss, and breakup) were examined as a personal flashbulb memory (FBM). Although FBM is usually caused by arousal at encoding, the effects of arousal at retrieval was investigated by giving participants caffeine to determine its effect on elaboration at recall. 72 Butler students completed a protocol containing narrative and probe sections on each event of their last relationship. Results showed that caffeine enhanced memory of events at retrieval.