When Emotions Inflect Memories: The Effect of Emotional Valence on Self‐Derivation Through Memory Integration for Adolescents

ABSTRACT Self‐derivation through memory integration is the process of integrating two or more separate but related episodes into new knowledge. The present study examined how emotional valence influences adolescents' self‐derivation in classroom settings across two experiments. In Experiment 1, adolescents ( N = 159, M age = 13.48) viewed emotional video clips aiming to induce different emotional valences (positive, negative, and neutral), followed by a self‐derivation through integration task. In Experiment 2, adolescents ( N = 454, M age = 13.49) viewed the emotional video clip at various phases of memory integration (before‐learning, between‐stem, before‐test). A delayed test one week later assessed the retention of self‐derived knowledge. Across both experiments, positive emotion most effectively enhanced self‐derivation through integration. Specifically, Experiment 2 revealed that inducing positive emotion prior to learning enhanced self‐derivation. The overall retention of self‐derivation significantly improved after one week. These findings underscore the importance of fostering positive emotional valences before learning to promote adolescents' effective knowledge integration and self‐derivation.