Hoehne Sophie, Zimprich Daniel
Department of Developmental Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany.
Front Psychol. 2025 Jul 28;16:1608751. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1608751. eCollection 2025.
Over time, autobiographical memories (AMs) can decrease in affect intensity (fading affect), increase in affect intensity (flourishing affect), remain the same (fixed affect), or change valence (flexible affect). In this regard, the fading affect bias (FAB) names the phenomenon that, on average, negative AMs' affect intensity fades more strongly and more rapidly over time than positive AMs' affect intensity, which sometimes even increases on average. The FAB has most often been investigated using difference scores between retrospective ratings of AMs' initial affect intensity and their affect intensity from a current perspective (calculated change). The goal of the present study was to complement this previous research by additionally investigating the FAB in change, that is, the directly assessed, subjectively perceived direction of affect change in an AM over time.
Mixed-effects multinominal models were used to predict the probabilities of the different types of subjective change, which were then compared with their likelihood in calculated change. Moreover, the influence of initial intensity, neuroticism, and life satisfaction was compared between subjective change and calculated change. Analyses were based on 12,314 AMs reported by 2,163 adults aged 18-98 years.
A clear FAB was found for both subjective and calculated change. Neuroticism and life satisfaction showed comparable effects on subjective and calculated change, but the effects of initial intensity differed. Specifically, the effects of initial intensity on the probability of flourishing and flexible affect in subjective change were in the same direction as for calculated change, albeit with substantially weaker effect sizes. Moreover, only for subjective change did initial intensity have an effect on the likelihood of fading affect (negative effect).
The present findings extend previous knowledge of the FAB and its predictors, particularly with regard to initial intensity. Moreover, the present study supports the idea of an emotion-regulating, self-serving functionality of autobiographical memory, also within subjective emotional changes, and sheds an optimistic light on the appropriateness of retrospective designs in FAB studies.
随着时间的推移，自传体记忆（AM）的情感强度可能会降低（情感消退）、增加（情感增强）、保持不变（固定情感）或改变效价（灵活情感）。在这方面，情感消退偏差（FAB）指的是这样一种现象，即平均而言，负面自传体记忆的情感强度随时间的推移比正面自传体记忆的情感强度消退得更强烈、更迅速，正面自传体记忆的情感强度有时甚至平均会增加。情感消退偏差最常通过对自传体记忆初始情感强度的回顾性评分与其当前情感强度之间的差异分数来进行研究（计算得出的变化）。本研究的目的是通过额外研究自传体记忆情感变化中的情感消退偏差来补充先前的这项研究，也就是直接评估的、个体主观感知到的自传体记忆情感随时间变化的方向。
使用混合效应多项模型来预测不同类型主观变化的概率，然后将其与计算得出的变化中的可能性进行比较。此外，还比较了主观变化和计算得出的变化中初始强度、神经质和生活满意度的影响。分析基于2163名18 - 98岁成年人报告的12314条自传体记忆。
在主观变化和计算得出的变化中均发现了明显的情感消退偏差。神经质和生活满意度对主观变化和计算得出的变化显示出类似的影响，但初始强度的影响有所不同。具体而言，初始强度对主观变化中情感增强和灵活情感概率的影响方向与计算得出的变化相同，尽管效应大小明显较弱。此外，只有在主观变化中，初始强度才对情感消退的可能性有影响（负面影响）。
本研究结果扩展了先前关于情感消退偏差及其预测因素的知识，特别是在初始强度方面。此外，本研究支持自传体记忆具有情感调节、自我服务功能的观点，即使在主观情绪变化中也是如此，并且为情感消退偏差研究中回顾性设计的合理性提供了乐观的依据。
