The Lighter Side of Pain: Do Positive Affective States Predict Memory of Pain Induced by Running a Marathon?

Figures & data

Table 1 Descriptive Characteristics of Participants

		Demographic Variables		Contextual Variables
Sex	N	Age	Athlete	Run Alone	First Marathon
First phase of the study
Male	63 (58%)	41.21 (9.85)	44 (69.8%)	33 (52.4%)	15 (23.8%)*
Female	45 (42%)	39.17 (6.93)	32 (71.1%)	26 (57.8%)	20 (44.4%)
Total	108 (100%)
Second phase of the study
Male	32 (57%)	40.9 (10.1)	22 (68.8%)	14 (43.8%)	9 (28.1%)
Female	24 (43%)	40.6 (8.1)	18 (75.0%)	14 (58.3%)	12 (50%)
Total	56 (100%)

Note: *p < 0.05. All other comparisons were nonsignificant.

Table 2 Differences Between Experienced and Recalled Pain and Affective States

Variable	M ± SD	t(df)	p	d
Pain intensity
Experienced	6.64 ± 2.84	3.41 (55)	< 0.001	0.45 (0.17–0.72)
Recalled	5.79 ± 2.57
Affective State
Positive affect	38.09 ± 10.18	25.87 (107)	< 0.001	3.36 (2.70–4.03)
Negative Affect	11.73 ± 3.94

Table 3 Linear Mixed Model Results

Predictor	b	Std. Error	df	t	p
(Intercept)	7.470	1.184	54	6.308	< 0.001
Time	0.579	0.674	54	0.860	0.394
Positive affect	−0.029	0.029	54	−0.981	0.331
Time x Positive affect	−0.001	0.017	54	−0.033	0.974
REML criterion at convergence: 516
R2c = 0.540

Table 4 Exploratory Results

Predictor	b	Std. Error	β (Std. b)	t	p
(Intercept)	0.881	4.317		0.204	0.84
Experienced pain	0.713	0.152	0.62	4.7	< 0.001
Negative affect	0.411	0.179	0.316	2.305	0.029
Positive affect	−0.139	0.064	−0.289	−2.171	0.039
First marathon [yes]	1.811	0.838	0.307	2.162	0.039
Run alone [yes]	1.48	0.76	0.255	1.946	0.062
Age	−0.017	0.036	−0.058	−0.472	0.64
F(6,28) = 6.66, p < 0.001
R^2 = 0.588

Abbreviation: Std, standardized.

Figure 1 Significant predictors of the memory of pain.