Emotion has a severe impact on memory. In times of extreme emotion, a person will experience higher levels of memory attainment or loss. Many people remember happy times or upsetting experiences, but few remember the "dull" times. The story of Anastasia Romanov, how she experienced amnesia after an attack on her family, is probably the most well known in pop culture. Another story is found at http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=dXMs_dloSEcC&oi=fnd&pg=PR11&dq=emotion+and+memory&ots=zjyFfSReGX&sig=1gP8iCRcfiecjUdbxAMlr1kNAcs#v=onepage&q=emotion%20and%20memory&f=false, on the case of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania vs Anthony Gallagher, were a rape victim could not pick out her perpetrator after two weeks but could four years later.
High reason is the idea that humans can make accurate decisions without the influence of emotion. However, the somatic hypothesis says that emotion plays a large part in decision making, especially when a quick decision needs to be made. One example from pop culture is Michael Crichton's work The Andromeda Strain. When making a decision about destroying a biological testing facility, the person chosen to make the decision was a single man without children, because it was believed he would be least attached to the facility and more likely to sacrifice his life to stop the spread of a virus.
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