Emotional impact feedback changes how we remember negative autobiographical experiences

When people are told that their negative memories are worse than other people's, do they later remember those events differently? We asked participants to recall a recent negative memory then, 24 h later, we gave some participants feedback about the emotional impact of their event--stating it w...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inExperimental psychology Vol. 57; no. 5; p. 354
Main Authors Takarangi, Melanie K T, Strange, Deryn
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Germany 01.01.2010
Subjects
Emotions
Feedback, Psychological
Female
Humans
Male
Mental Recall
Peer Group
Time Factors
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Summary:When people are told that their negative memories are worse than other people's, do they later remember those events differently? We asked participants to recall a recent negative memory then, 24 h later, we gave some participants feedback about the emotional impact of their event--stating it was more or less negative compared to other people's experiences. One week later, participants recalled the event again. We predicted that if feedback affected how participants remembered their negative experiences, their ratings of the memory's characteristics should change over time. That is, when participants are told that their negative event is extremely negative, their memories should be more vivid, recollected strongly, and remembered from a personal perspective, compared to participants in the other conditions. Our results provide support for this hypothesis. We suggest that external feedback might be a potential mechanism in the relationship between negative memories and psychological well-being.
ISSN:2190-5142
DOI:10.1027/1618-3169/a000042