On the emotions that accompany autobiographical memories: Dysphoria disrupts the fading affect bias |
| |
| Authors: | W. Richard Walker John Skowronski Jeffrey Gibbons Rodney Vogl Charles Thompson |
| |
| Affiliation: | 1. Winston-Salem State University, Winston-Salem, NC, USA;2. Northern Illinois University, De Kalb, IL, USA;3. Christopher Newport University, Newport News, VA, USA;4. Christian Brothers University, Memphis, TN, USA;5. Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, USA |
| |
| Abstract: | Participants in two studies recalled autobiographical events and reported both the affect experienced at event occurrence and the affect associated with event recollection. The intensity of affect associated with a recalled event generally decreased, but the affective fading was greater for negative events than for positive events. The magnitude of this fading affect bias also varied with participants' dysphoria levels: Dysphorics showed a smaller fading affect bias than non-dysphorics. Additional analyses suggested that the fading affect bias is not a product of: (1) distorted retrospective memory for the affect originally accompanying events; (2) differences in the initial affect intensity of positive and negative events; or (3) differences in the ages of positive and negative events. Other variables that might be related to the fading affect bias are discussed. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
|
|
