ELABORATION OF WORD LISTS IN PORTUGUESE WITH EMOTIONAL CONTENT AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON MEMORY FUNCTION IN NORMAL SUBJECTS

Use of word lists to test memory functions is frequent in clinical pra ctice. The meaning or type of emotion evoked by the items and its infl uence upon attention, retention and recall capabilities are seldom con sidered. The present paper reports the development of three word lists with emotionally negative, positive and neutral content for an audito ry memory test. The immediate and recent recall of the three lists wer e evaluated in 90 community subjects. The aim of the study was to veri fy possible differences on encoding and retrieval of information when distinct emotionally toned items are used. The influence of age, level of education and the presence of depressive symptoms measured by a de pression rating scale was also considered. Negatively toned informatio n presented a better delayed recall rate than a positive and neutral t one, whereas a neutral tone was the most forgotten. among the three.