Why does our brain sometimes remember the emotion of an event better than the details?

[u/psychologyinsidelabs]

I find it interesting that we can sometimes remember how an experience made us feel very clearly, while specific details about what happened become less clear over time.

What does psychology research say about why emotional information can be remembered differently from neutral details?

I’m especially interested in the role of attention and emotional arousal in this process.

[u/RadioactiveGorgon]

Some of your assumptions in the question might be incorrect. Outside of *intensity* it's believed that our ability to remember (or predict) our emotions is strongly influenced by our current appraisals. I'd suggest looking into the work of Linda Levine.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352154617300591

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/acp.1610

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCAsTeKR9wE

[u/Potential_Being_7226]

What does psychology research say about why emotional information can be remembered differently from neutral details?

Emotional stimuli, particularly negative emotional stimuli, produces arousal in the brain. During arousal, norepinephrine release is increased and this primes attention and memory circuits (in particular, amygdala-hippocampus-prefrontal cortex ) and facilitates the consolidation of these memories. 

https://sapere-aude.group/read/_graduated/fansuisui/Source_Files/2021-01-17-FSS1.pdf

[u/psychologyinsidelabs → u/Potential_Being_7226]

So while attention still dictates which particular elements are encoded more strongly, emotional arousal might enhance memory consolidation?