The impact of shifting vantage perspective when recalling and imagining positive events

Abstract

The vantage perspective from which memories are recalled influences their emotional impact. To date, however, the impact of vantage perspective on the emotions elicited by positive memories and images of positive future events has been minimally explored. We experimentally manipulated the vantage perspective from which a sample of undergraduate students (n =80) recalled positive memories and imagined positive future events. Participants who naturally recalled their positive memories from a field perspective reported decreased vividness and positive affect (i.e., happiness, optimism, hopefulness) when they were instructed to shift to an observer perspective. The same pattern of emotionality ratings was observed when participants' vantage perspective of imagined future events was manipulated. In contrast, shifting participants from observer to field perspective recall of positive memories did not result in changes in ratings of memory-related emotion, although we found an unexpected trend towards reduced vividness. For positive future events, shifting from an observer to a field perspective resulted in decreased vividness but did not lead to any changes in positive emotion. Our findings confirm that vantage perspective plays a key role in determining the emotional impact of positive memories, and demonstrate that this relationship is also evident for images of future positive events.

Keywords:

• Vantage perspective
• Memory
• Future
• Imagery

The authors are very grateful to Dr Aliza Werner-Seidler for her assistance with the preparation of this manuscript. This study was supported by a Discovery Project Grant/Australian Research Fellowship from the Australian Research Council (DP0984791) awarded to Michelle Moulds.

The authors are very grateful to Dr Aliza Werner-Seidler for her assistance with the preparation of this manuscript. This study was supported by a Discovery Project Grant/Australian Research Fellowship from the Australian Research Council (DP0984791) awarded to Michelle Moulds.

Notes

¹ We thank an anonymous reviewer for this suggestion, and borrow their term in describing the point that he/she suggested.