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Forgotten but not gone: the recall and recognition of self-threatening memories

Forgotten but not gone: the recall and recognition of self-threatening memories
Forgotten but not gone: the recall and recognition of self-threatening memories
When people selectively forget feedback that threatens the self (mnemic neglect), are those memories permanently lost or potentially recoverable? In two experiments, participants processed feedback pertaining either to themselves or to another person. Feedback consisted of a mixture of positive and negative behaviors exemplifying traits that were both central and peripheral to participants’ self-definition. In Experiment 1, participants exhibited poorer recall for, but unimpaired recognition of, self-threatening feedback (i.e., negative, central, self-referent), relative to both self-affirming feedback (positive, central, self-referent) and other-relevant feedback (positive/negative, central, other-referent). In Experiment 2, participants who had experienced ego-deflation, but not ego-inflation, exhibited mnemic neglect for recall, but not for recognition. Both experiments imply that, even after being self-protectively neglected, self-threatening memories can still be retrieved.
self-protection, recall, recognition, repression, feedback, neglect, inhibition, retrieval
0022-1031
547-561
Green, Jeffrey D.
4dc0383d-8061-41f3-a5d3-e12be4e54075
Sedikides, Constantine
9d45e66d-75bb-44de-87d7-21fd553812c2
Gregg, Aiden P.
1b03bb58-b3a5-4852-a177-29e4f633b063
Green, Jeffrey D.
4dc0383d-8061-41f3-a5d3-e12be4e54075
Sedikides, Constantine
9d45e66d-75bb-44de-87d7-21fd553812c2
Gregg, Aiden P.
1b03bb58-b3a5-4852-a177-29e4f633b063

Green, Jeffrey D., Sedikides, Constantine and Gregg, Aiden P. (2007) Forgotten but not gone: the recall and recognition of self-threatening memories. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44 (3), 547-561. (doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2007.10.006). (Submitted)

Record type: Article

Abstract

When people selectively forget feedback that threatens the self (mnemic neglect), are those memories permanently lost or potentially recoverable? In two experiments, participants processed feedback pertaining either to themselves or to another person. Feedback consisted of a mixture of positive and negative behaviors exemplifying traits that were both central and peripheral to participants’ self-definition. In Experiment 1, participants exhibited poorer recall for, but unimpaired recognition of, self-threatening feedback (i.e., negative, central, self-referent), relative to both self-affirming feedback (positive, central, self-referent) and other-relevant feedback (positive/negative, central, other-referent). In Experiment 2, participants who had experienced ego-deflation, but not ego-inflation, exhibited mnemic neglect for recall, but not for recognition. Both experiments imply that, even after being self-protectively neglected, self-threatening memories can still be retrieved.

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More information

Submitted date: September 2007
Keywords: self-protection, recall, recognition, repression, feedback, neglect, inhibition, retrieval

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 63104
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/63104
ISSN: 0022-1031
PURE UUID: 49b7c586-dcba-41eb-b3c3-e3c63fe69644
ORCID for Constantine Sedikides: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-4036-889X

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Date deposited: 10 Sep 2008
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 03:08

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Contributors

Author: Jeffrey D. Green
Author: Aiden P. Gregg

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