Transfer of negative valence in an episodic memory task

Emotion can color what we perceive and subsequently remember in myriad ways. Indeed, it is well established that emotion enhances some aspects of memory, while impairing others. For example, a number of recent episodic memory studies show that emotion—particularly negative emotion—weakens associative memory, including item-item associations. Other literature shows that emotion biases our later attitudes and preferences. That is, the coincident pairing of a negative stimulus with a neutral one can reduce one's preference for that neutral stimulus upon subsequent encounter—a ‘transfer of valence’ effect. In an effort to connect these two phenomena, here we ask if and under what circumstances they co-occur. Across multiple experiments, we show that negative emotion impairs associative memory for item-item pairings, in accordance with prior work. We also show a transfer of valence effect in this paradigm, such that items paired with negative versus neutral stimuli are subsequently rated as less pleasant. Our data further show that transfer of valence is contingent on episodic memory. These findings highlight the complexity and multifaceted nature of emotional effects on memory

Imagining emotional events benefits future-oriented decisions

How does imagining future events—whether positive or negative—influence our choices in the present? Prior work has shown the simulation of hypothetical future events, dubbed episodic future thinking, can alter the propensity to engage in delay discounting (the tendency to devalue future rewards) and does so in a valence-specific manner. Some research shows that positive episodic future thinking reduces delay discounting, whereas negative future thinking augments it. However, more recent research indicates that both positive and negative episodic future thinking reduce delay discounting, suggesting an effect of episodic future thinking that is independent of valence. In this study, we sought to replicate and extend these latter findings. Here, participants (N = 604; N = 572 after exclusions) completed an online study. In the baseline task, participants completed a delay discounting task. In the experimental task, they engaged in episodic future thinking before completing a second delay discounting task. Participants were randomly assigned to engage in either positive, neutral, or negative episodic future thinking. In accordance with Bulley et al., we found that episodic future thinking, regardless of valence, reduced delay discounting. Although episodic future thinking shifted decision-making in all conditions, the effect was stronger when participants engaged in positive episodic future thinking, even after accounting for personal relevance and vividness of imagined events. These findings suggest that episodic future thinking may promote future-oriented choices by contextualising the future, and this effect is further strengthened when the future is tied to positive emotion

The Visual Object Tracking VOT2015 challenge results

The Visual Object Tracking challenge 2015, VOT2015, aims at comparing short-term single-object visual trackers that do not apply pre-learned models of object appearance. Results of 62 trackers are presented. The number of tested trackers makes VOT 2015 the largest benchmark on short-term tracking to date. For each participating tracker, a short description is provided in the appendix. Features of the VOT2015 challenge that go beyond its VOT2014 predecessor are: (i) a new VOT2015 dataset twice as large as in VOT2014 with full annotation of targets by rotated bounding boxes and per-frame attribute, (ii) extensions of the VOT2014 evaluation methodology by introduction of a new performance measure. The dataset, the evaluation kit as well as the results are publicly available at the challenge website(1)