Recent Discovery: Smiles Q: Do Smiling Teachers and Students Get Remembered Longer?
A: Our memory processes are influenced by a host of factors including glucose levels, gender, expectations, nutrients, type of memory pathway used and certainly by reward. To most humans, a smiling face is considered rewarding.
A recent study used event-related functional (fMRI), to uncover the effects a simple smile during the encoding and retrieval of face-name associations. Participants viewed smiling or neutral faces (during encoding) each were paired with a name. Then, later, during retrieval, only names were presented. The participants were asked to retrieve the associated facial expressions.
This well-designed test made sure only the right type of memory was being measured. Successful memory activity of face-name associations was identified by comparing remembered vs. forgotten trials during both encoding and retrieval. Amazingly, the actual effect of a smile was identified by comparing successful memory trials for smiling vs. neutral faces.
The study discovered that: 1) the retrieval of face-name associations was more accurate and faster for smiling than neutral faces. 2) the orbitofrontal cortex and the hippocampus showed successful encoding and retrieval activations, which were greater for smiling than neutral faces and 3) functional connectivity between the orbitofrontal cortex and the hippocampus during successful encoding and retrieval was stronger for smiling than neutral faces.
Overall, the study results show how rewarding social signals from a smiling face can enhance relational memory for face-name associations.
Source: Tsukiura T, Cabeza R. (2008) Orbitofrontal and hippocampal contributions to memory for face-name associations: The rewarding power of a smile. Neuropsychologia.;46(9):2310-9.
Q: Do Smiling Teachers and Students Get Remembered Longer?
A: Our memory processes are influenced by a host of factors including glucose levels, gender, expectations, nutrients, type of memory pathway used and certainly by reward. To most humans, a smiling face is considered rewarding.
This well-designed test made sure only the right type of memory was being measured. Successful memory activity of face-name associations was identified by comparing remembered vs. forgotten trials during both encoding and retrieval. Amazingly, the actual effect of a smile was identified by comparing successful memory trials for smiling vs. neutral faces.
The study discovered that: 1) the retrieval of face-name associations was more accurate and faster for smiling than neutral faces. 2) the orbitofrontal cortex and the hippocampus showed successful encoding and retrieval activations, which were greater for smiling than neutral faces and 3) functional connectivity between the orbitofrontal cortex and the hippocampus during successful encoding and retrieval was stronger for smiling than neutral faces.
Source: Tsukiura T, Cabeza R. (2008) Orbitofrontal and hippocampal contributions to memory for face-name associations: The rewarding power of a smile. Neuropsychologia.;46(9):2310-9.