An exploration of the relationship among valence, fading affect, rehearsal frequency, and memory vividness for past personal events

ABSTRACT

The affect associated with negative (or unpleasant) memories typically tends to fade faster than the affect associated with positive (or pleasant) memories, a phenomenon called the fading affect bias (FAB). We conducted a study to explore the mechanisms related to the FAB. A retrospective recall procedure was used to obtain three self-report measures (memory vividness, rehearsal frequency, affective fading) for both positive events and negative events. Affect for positive events faded less than affect for negative events, and positive events were recalled more vividly than negative events. The perceived vividness of an event (memory vividness) and the extent to which an event has been rehearsed (rehearsal frequency) were explored as possible mediators of the relation between event valence and affect fading. Additional models conceived of affect fading and rehearsal frequency as contributors to a memory’s vividness. Results suggested that memory vividness was a plausible mediator of the relation between an event’s valence and affect fading. Rehearsal frequency was also a plausible mediator of this relation, but only via its effects on memory vividness. Additional modelling results suggested that affect fading and rehearsal frequency were both plausible mediators of the relation between an event’s valence and the event’s rated memory vividness.

KEYWORDS:

• Self
• memory
• rehearsal
• vividness
• fading affect bias

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. A reviewer of the manuscript wondered why we averaged scores across items before entering the data into the analysis instead of entering the raw data into the analysis. Retaining the original items would have required the use of statistical models that were more complicated than the ones that we employed (items were nested within valence, which were nested within subjects). By averaging across item valence, we avoided a level of nesting and could approach the analyses using the relatively straightforward regression models that we employed. This approach was perfectly suited to the questions that were asked of the data. Moreover, the models that we employed facilitated comparison to the results provided by Ritchie and Batteson (2013), who used a similar approach to data analysis.