Phenomenal characteristics associated with real and imagined events: the effects of event valence and absorption

Abstract

This study examined the effects of emotional valence of an event and individual differences in absorption on the phenomenal characteristics associated with real and imagined events. Each participant described four events. Two of these were real and two were imagined, with one pleasant and stressful event being generated for each category. Pleasant events (both real and imagined) contained more detail (visual detail, smell, and taste, and more information regarding location, time, etc.) than stressful events. In addition, higher levels of absorption were related to higher ratings for both real and imagined events (for both pleasant and stressful events). Discussion focused on implications for further research in source monitoring and other relevant domains. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An Integrative Study of Autobiographical Memory for Positive and Negative Experiences

“…In the present study the participants attributed greater vividness and sensorial details to their positive memories than to their negative memories. These data are consistent with previous research (Destun & Kuiper, 1999; Rasmussen & Berntsen, 2009; Schaefer & Philippot, 2005). The participants gave similar emotional level ratings to positive and negative narratives at the time of the event.…”

Differential effects of arousal in positive and negative autobiographical memories

“…This analysis demonstrated that individuals rate positive memories as richer (as measured by all three retrieval characteristics) than negative memories (regardless of the level of emotional arousal), and highly arousing memories as richer than unarousing memories (regardless of valence). The enhancing effect of positive emotion is consistent with previous research that has demonstrated that positive memories are associated with richer memory representations (Berntsen, 2002; D’Argembeau et al, 2003; Destun & Kuiper, 1999; Kensinger & Schacter, 2006; Raspotnig, 1997; Talarico et al, 2004; Talarico et al, 2009). In addition, the numerically larger within subject effect of emotional arousal on these three phenomenological characteristics replicates previous research suggesting that emotional arousal may be a better predictor of memory richness than valence (Talarico et al, 2004).…”

Characteristics associated with real and made-up events: The effects of event valence, event elaboration, and individual differences.

“…Furthermore, we found no evidence that individual difference factors pertaining to positive personality attributes (such as self-esteem and positive affect) had any facilitative effects on any of the ratings we obtained in Study 1. These event characteristic aspects of our findings were unexpected, given past literature that has provided a conceptual and empirical basis for expecting some systematic individual differences to emerge (e.g., Destun & Kuiper, 1996, 1999Rubin & Siegler, 2004;Rubin et al, 2003). However, consistent with a depression negativity bias (Kirsh & Kuiper, 2002), we did find that when event valence was not specifically manipulated, individual differences pertaining to depression level had a strong impact on the pleasant or unpleasant nature of the events recalled or generated.…”

“…In turn, this positivity hypothesis suggests that individuals would more often relive and rehearse pleasant prior life experiences, with this greater repetition then resulting in findings congruent with the imagination inflation effect (Thomas et al, 2003). Consistent with this proposal, prior research has demonstrated greater imagery-related visual details for pleasant personal events, along with greater recall of these events, when compared with unpleasant events (Byrne et al, 2001;Destun & Kuiper, 1999).…”