Life is Pleasant—and Memory Helps to Keep it that Way!

@article{Walker2003LifeIP,
  title={Life is Pleasant—and Memory Helps to Keep it that Way!},
  author={W. R. Walker and J. J. Skowronski and C. P. Thompson},
  journal={Review of General Psychology},
  year={2003},
  volume={7},
  pages={203 - 210}
}
  • W. R. Walker, J. J. Skowronski, C. P. Thompson
  • Published 2003
  • Psychology
  • Review of General Psychology
  • People's recollections of the past are often positively biased. This bias has 2 causes. The 1st cause lies in people's perceptions of events. The authors review the results of several studies and present several new comparative analyses of these studies, all of which indicate that people perceive events in their lives to more often be pleasant than unpleasant. A 2nd cause is the fading affect bias: The affect associated with unpleasant events fades faster than the affect associated with… CONTINUE READING

    Figures and Tables from this paper.

    A “rosy view” of the past: Positive memory biases
    1

    References

    Publications referenced by this paper.
    SHOWING 1-10 OF 31 REFERENCES
    Autobiographical memory: unpleasantness fades faster than pleasantness over time
    229
    Affect and retrieval of personal memories
    39
    Effect of depression on the speed of recall of pleasant and unpleasant experiences.
    155
    Autobiographical memory in depression.
    334
    Most People Are Happy
    1043
    Immune neglect: a source of durability bias in affective forecasting.
    1132
    Bad is Stronger than Good
    4599
    AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY AND AFFECT UNDER CONDITIONS OF REDUCED ENVIRONMENTAL STIMULATION
    24