FIGURE 1.

The relational memory task was built of two major parts: (1) during the three consecutive training phases participants were asked to memorize a total of 36 pairs of backgrounds and facial emotional expressions (happy/sad/neutral). After each pair a virtual monetary reward or loss appeared briefly, with no associated instruction provided. (2) During testing 12 background scenes were presented serving as the cue. Subsequently three faces of different emotions appeared overlaid on the background. Half (six trials) of the test trials contained the face previously paired with the cue (Match trials). For Non-match trials (six trials) none of the three faces was associated with the scene during training. Participants were asked to try and recall the matching face and keep viewing it (implicit testing). Explicit (behavioral) testing of relational memory by forced-choice recognition followed. In this phase, participants were instructed to press a button each rendered to the position of the face (upper left, upper right, and middle-bottom), or another button if neither face matched the scene. During the follow-up measurements, testing was performed using the same experimental paradigm entailing training, implicit and explicit memory examination.