Janczyk Markus, Tucholski Katharina, Kaup Barbara, Ulrich Rolf
Department of Psychology, University of Bremen, Hochschulring 18, 28359, Bremen, Germany.
Department of Psychology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
Mem Cognit. 2025 May 14. doi: 10.3758/s13421-025-01715-y.
Two recent studies utilized indirect response procedures (i.e., a sentence completion task and the Implicit Association Test) and suggest that people evaluate the future more positively than the past (Kaup et al., Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 612,720, 2021; Ulrich et al., Memory & Cognition, 52, 444-458, 2024). This present article reports a novel chronometric approach and a self-report study examining whether this relationship can be observed consistently. In one part of the chronometric study, participants were instructed to respond verbally with the words "past" and "tomorrow" to negatively and positively connotated words. In the positive-future condition, participants responded with "tomorrow" to positive and "yesterday" to negative words; in the positive-past condition, they responded with "yesterday" to positive and "tomorrow" to negative words. In the other part, participants responded verbally with "good" and "bad" to time-related words. In the positive-future condition, they responded with "good" to future-related and "bad" to past-related words; in the positive-past condition, they responded with "good" to past-related and "bad" to future-related words. Response times were shorter in the positive-future than in the positive-past condition, suggesting that participants consistently evaluate the future more positively than the past (i.e., the positive-future effect). This strengthens the view that the positive-future effect is robust and general. Several possible mechanisms of why this effect emerges are discussed. The self-report study, in contrast, indicated no significant difference in individuals' perceptions of the past compared to the future. This may be attributed to a positivity bias in recalling past events, which may mask the differences in how people perceive the past versus the future.
最近的两项研究采用了间接反应程序（即句子完成任务和内隐联想测验），结果表明人们对未来的评价比过去更积极（考普等人，《心理学前沿》，第12卷，第612720页，2021年；乌尔里希等人，《记忆与认知》，第52卷，第444 - 458页，2024年）。本文报告了一种新颖的计时方法和一项自我报告研究，以检验这种关系是否能得到一致观察。在计时研究的一部分中，参与者被要求用“过去”和“明天”这两个词对具有消极和积极内涵的词进行口头回应。在积极未来条件下，参与者对积极词用“明天”回应，对消极词用“昨天”回应；在积极过去条件下，他们对积极词用“昨天”回应，对消极词用“明天”回应。在另一部分中，参与者用“好”和“坏”对与时间相关的词进行口头回应。在积极未来条件下，他们对与未来相关的词用“好”回应，对与过去相关的词用“坏”回应；在积极过去条件下，他们对与过去相关的词用“好”回应，对与未来相关的词用“坏”回应。积极未来条件下的反应时间比积极过去条件下更短，这表明参与者始终对未来的评价比过去更积极（即积极未来效应）。这强化了积极未来效应是稳健且普遍的这一观点。文中讨论了这种效应出现的几种可能机制。相比之下，自我报告研究表明，个体对过去的认知与对未来的认知没有显著差异。这可能归因于回忆过去事件时的积极偏差，它可能掩盖了人们对过去与未来认知方式的差异。
