Box 1. Clarifying terminology We define emotional memory as memory for a past event that elicited an emotional response. This definition should not be confused with other possible meanings of “emotional memory”: - The emotion of the memory. The use of “emotional” as a modifier to “memory” might suggest that it is the emotion of the memory that is being described. Yet as we use the term, it is entirely possible to have an “emotional memory” with episodic content, but little emotion reexperienced at the time the memory is brought to mind. - Memory for a past emotional state. “Emotional memory” also could refer to memory of a past emotion, with the individual trying to remember how they felt previously. But in most studies of “emotional memory,” what is being queried is not memory for the emotion, but rather memory for the experience that triggered the earlier emotional response. Furthermore, extensive research has shown that people are quite bad at remembering a past emotional (or other mental) state; there can be disconnects between the emotional intensity experienced at encoding and retrieval (Hutchison et al., 2021; Levine et al., 2020), and the emotional state we remember has as much to do with the state we are currently in as with the state we previously experienced (Chang et al., 2018; Levine, 1997). - Modulation of memory by mood or stress. Sometimes, “emotional memory” can encompass the study of how a person’s emotional state—the mood they are in or their stress level—influences memory. We do not specifically delve into these influences here, although in some studies it is ambiguous whether effects are driven only by short-lived emotional reactions or by longer-term changes in a person’s state. - Memory for events that triggered feelings. When many affective scientists use the term “emotion,” they are talking about states associated with some conscious feeling and often are referring to feeling-states that we name (happiness, sadness, etc.). While there are some exceptions (Riegel et al., 2022), the bulk of the studies on “emotional memory” do not focus on discrete emotions (e.g., distinguishing fear memories from disgust memories). Moreover, many who study “emotional memory,” including ourselves, do not assume that participants are experiencing consciously accessible feeling states in all paradigms (such as when we use stimuli-like words or photo-objects that are only seen for a few seconds). Given the way terms, such as “emotion” and “affect” are used in much current-day discussion (Barrett & Bliss-Moreau, 2009), “memory for affective experiences”—while a mouthful—might be a more accurate summary of what the bulk of research on “emotional memory” has studied. Nevertheless, we will stick with the more commonly used term “emotional memory,” and its derivatives “negative memory” and “positive memory,” to refer to memories for events that, at the time of their occurrence, elicited a negative or positive affective response.