PMID: 11340929May 9, 2001Paper

How pleasant was your childhood? Beliefs about memory shape inferences from experienced difficulty of recall

Psychological Science
P Winkielman, N Schwarz

Abstract

People's beliefs about how memory works can affect their inferences from experienced difficulty of recall. Participants were asked to recall either 4 childhood events (experienced as an easy task) or 12 childhood events (experienced as a difficult task). Subsequently, they were led to believe that either pleasant or unpleasant periods of one's life fade from memory. When the recall task was difficult (12 events), participants who believed that memories from unpleasant periods fade away rated their childhood as less happy than participants who believed that memories from pleasant periods fade away. The opposite pattern was observed when the recall task was easy (4 events). This interplay of recall experiences and memory beliefs suggests that the judgmental impact of subjective experiences is shaped by beliefs about their meaning. It also suggests that the recall difficulty in clinical memory work may lead a person to make negative inferences about his or her childhood, provided the person shares the popular belief that memory represses negative information.

References

Jan 14, 2005·Personality and Social Psychology Review : an Official Journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc·N Schwarz

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Citations

Jul 4, 2002·Clinical Psychology Review·Harald MerckelbachEric Rassin
Jul 9, 2004·Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition·Joseph Clare, Stephan Lewandowsky
Apr 26, 2013·Cognition & Emotion·Andrei Holman
Mar 2, 2006·Psychological Science·Pablo BriñolZakary L Tormala
Apr 21, 2006·Psychological Science·Christian Unkelbach
Mar 20, 2012·PloS One·Andrew ClarkGiuliana Mazzoni
Dec 31, 2005·Memory & Cognition·Priya Raghubir, Geeta Menon
Dec 1, 2010·Review of Philosophy and Psychology·Rolf Reber, Christian Unkelbach
Jul 14, 2010·Consciousness and Cognition·Siyun LiuQiong Yu
Nov 5, 2008·Consciousness and Cognition·Christian Unkelbach, Christoph Stahl
Oct 25, 2006·Developmental Science·Gail D Heyman, Brian J Compton
Oct 22, 2009·The British Journal of Social Psychology·Kent D HarberKathleen A Kennedy
Dec 17, 2014·Consciousness and Cognition·Marie GeurtenThierry Meulemans
Jun 14, 2006·Personality and Social Psychology Review : an Official Journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc·Jamin Halberstadt
Jul 30, 2009·Personality and Social Psychology Review : an Official Journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc·Adam L Alter, Daniel M Oppenheimer
Jan 25, 2014·Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin·Karl-Andrew WoltinVincent Y Yzerbyt
Jun 11, 2009·Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin·John V Petrocelli, Keith Dowd
Dec 9, 2008·Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin·Kent C H Lam, Roger Buehler
Oct 7, 2004·Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin·Lawrence J SannaSeth E Carter
Jul 14, 2010·Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin·Clayton R Critcher, Thomas Gilovich

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