The importance of regulatory goal states for autobiographical memory: A reply to Levine and Rubin

✍ Scribed by Alisha C. Holland; Elizabeth A. Kensinger

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 79 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1571-0645
• DOI: 10.1016/j.plrev.2010.01.014

✦ Synopsis

In their respective commentaries, Linda Levine and David Rubin raise important points for future research. Both commentaries relate to a theme that runs throughout our review (Holland & Kensinger [3], this issue): the importance of autobiographical memory for the self and vice-versa. Conway influentially argued that self-relevant goals are chronically active at memory encoding and retrieval; these goals lead to motivated memory processes that act partially in the interest of maintaining a coherent sense of self. The research presented by Levine points to the importance of examining a specific type of self-relevant goal-emotion regulation-on how the emotional details associated with autobiographical memories are initially encoded and later remembered. Although our review focused on the role of regulatory strategies during retrieval, prior research has demonstrated that the type of emotion regulation strategy employed at the time of encoding can differentially influence subsequent memory performance on laboratory tasks (e.g., ). More specifically, cognitive reappraisal has been associated with improved free recall [2] and recognition [9, Experiment 2], of negative picture stimuli, whereas emotional suppression has been associated with worse memory for such stimuli . The role of regulatory processes on encoding is further supported by Levine's autobiographical memory studies, and these studies importantly reveal that not only can the type of emotion regulation strategy influence which stimuli are remembered (as in ), it also can influence memory for experienced emotion.

A critical point for future research in this domain will be an examination of how individual differences in personality influence emotion regulation goals and strategies at encoding and therefore subsequent autobiographical memory for emotions. For example, it is easy to imagine how individual differences in extraversion and neuroticism might impact approach vs. avoidance motivation goals at encoding. These goals can in turn influence remembered happiness vs. anxiety as in the Lench and Levine (in press) study described by Levine ([4], this issue). Likewise, it is plausible that personality differences guide the emotion regulation strategies employed at encoding and thereby influence subsequent memory for emotions. It is known that strategies like positive reappraisal interact with negative mood regulation personality traits at retrieval [13] and seems likely that the same could be true at encoding. It is also possible that the influence of emotion regulation strategies at encoding play a role in solidifying different personality traits. For instance, if individuals with approach motivations at encoding tend to subsequently remember greater levels of happiness (Levine [4], this issue), then possessing a database of more positive autobiographical experiences might lead those individuals to report higher levels of traits like self-esteem and extraversion.