Emotional memory

The brain stores not just a memory of the past events, but also emotional memory from the past events. Decision making is based on identifying the situation, comparing it to the similar situation from the past, determining the possible choices of actions along with predicting their outcomes, and eventually making the choice that seems to bring the best result. Emotions and feelings are axillary tools for cognitive function in making descision . They assist in the descision making process, make it more efficient. If possible choice of action has brought/has been associated with a painful outcome in the past, the emotional memory is going to contribute to the avoidance of the same choice in the present situation. For example, if you had a discussion with someone over some topic that ended up in an argument. Let's say your views on this topic are very different from other person's, or even contradicting theirs. The argument ended in a way that was damaging to your relationship in some way, but none of you changed your point of view. The next time this topic pops up in a conversation you might experience a negative feeling that would make you change the topic of conversation. Your actions in this situation would be driven by the feeling and underlying emotion, that were triggered by the similarity to the conversation from the past.