Emotion and Prospective Memory: Thomas Lehman’s Senior Thesis

Thomas Lehman 16

Thomas Lehman ’16

Joining the ranks of free seniors this month is Thomas Lehman. The wildly popular football player studied the effects of emotion on prospective memory, the type of memory we use to remember to carry out intended future tasks. Lehman tested his hypothesis by setting four alarms on the phones of nine AMHS students. Each alarm played a positive, negative, or neutral sound, and based on the subjects’ response times he determined that negative emotions improve prospective memory responses compared to positive and neutral. This knowledge may help people with memory disorders, like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, remember to perform daily actions by using negative alarms as reminders.

The Talon staff wishes Thomas good luck on his upcoming defense!