THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMOTION REGULATION AND EPISODIC MEMORY FROM A DEVELOPMENTAL PERSPECTIVE: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

Sammanfattning: Abstract The relationship between emotion and memory has been the subject of several fascinating investigations for decades now. From a developmental perspective, research has demonstrated that episodic/autobiographical memories improve in typically developing children from an early age through adulthood. This is because of their nature in relation to processing emotional regulation strategies and recollection of traumatic or past experiences. The current systematic literature review sought to further explore the relationship between emotion regulation and episodic/autobiographical memories from a developmental perspective. The relationship was investigated using a systematic literature review in accordance with guidlines from the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis. The quality of included studies was evaluated using the Study Assessment Tool for Observational Cohort and Cross-Sectional studies from the National Institute of Health. The search for empirical peer-reviewed articles yielded n=686 participants from various countries who qualified for inclusion from six databases. Due to the heterogeneity of the studies included a meta-analysis could not be done. In terms of emotion regulation strategies, emotional situation knowledge, and sensitive guidance of parental reminiscing, the results show a significant association between emotion regulation and episodic/autobiographical memories. Children as young as three years demonstrated emotional understanding and were able to recall past events, however, older children (4-older) performed better on all memory tasks, indicating that they have developed their cognition strategies well enough to outperform the younger children. Despite the positive association addressed, this systematic review observed some vaiations in the results which were noted due to the study designs included. Although few studies have advanced our understanding of the relationship between emotion regulation, episodic, and autobiographical memories, and traumatic life events, additional study is still required to better understand how these relationships develop and change over time utilizing longitudinal studies.