Memory as a self-protective mechanism
Memory as a self-protective mechanism
The autobiographical memory literature has established that people remember poorly unpleasant, relative to pleasant, life events. We complemented this literature with a theoretical model – the mnemic neglect model – and an experimental paradigm that exerts tight control over the to-be-remembered material. Participants recall poorly self-threatening feedback compared to self-affirming or other-relevant feedback – a phenomenon we labeled mnemic neglect. The phenomenon is motivational: it is in the service of self-protection. The phenomenon is also flexible. Participants can switch from self-protection (e.g. avoiding negative feedback) to an alternative goal (e.g. striving for feedback with improvement potential), when circumstances call for it such as when the feedback is provided by a close other rather than a stranger. Finally, self-threatening feedback may be forgotten, but it is not lost: the mnemic neglect effect is not obtained in recognition recall.
1055-1068
Sedikides, Constantine
9d45e66d-75bb-44de-87d7-21fd553812c2
Green, Jeffrey D.
4dc0383d-8061-41f3-a5d3-e12be4e54075
23 September 2009
Sedikides, Constantine
9d45e66d-75bb-44de-87d7-21fd553812c2
Green, Jeffrey D.
4dc0383d-8061-41f3-a5d3-e12be4e54075
Sedikides, Constantine and Green, Jeffrey D.
(2009)
Memory as a self-protective mechanism.
Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 3 (6), .
(doi:10.1111/j.1751-9004.2009.00220.x).
Abstract
The autobiographical memory literature has established that people remember poorly unpleasant, relative to pleasant, life events. We complemented this literature with a theoretical model – the mnemic neglect model – and an experimental paradigm that exerts tight control over the to-be-remembered material. Participants recall poorly self-threatening feedback compared to self-affirming or other-relevant feedback – a phenomenon we labeled mnemic neglect. The phenomenon is motivational: it is in the service of self-protection. The phenomenon is also flexible. Participants can switch from self-protection (e.g. avoiding negative feedback) to an alternative goal (e.g. striving for feedback with improvement potential), when circumstances call for it such as when the feedback is provided by a close other rather than a stranger. Finally, self-threatening feedback may be forgotten, but it is not lost: the mnemic neglect effect is not obtained in recognition recall.
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Published date: 23 September 2009
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Local EPrints ID: 141997
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/141997
PURE UUID: 034af8a9-cfff-4b65-bb99-973f2a3cb43a
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Date deposited: 25 May 2010 11:44
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 02:43
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Author:
Jeffrey D. Green
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