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. Memory as a Self-Protective Mechanism A Hollywood film, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, conjures up the notion that problem memories (e.g. a relationship gone sour) can be erased by a painless electrical editing of neurons. In this case, Hollywood may be only slightly ahead of real-world events: a pill, propranolol, is currently undergoing testing at Harvard Medical School. A beta-blocker that affects stress hormones in the brain, propranolol, may prevent highly charged emotional memories taking hold, if taken shortly after witnessing a dramatic event (Cromie, 2004). Human memory, however, has been doing its own editing of unpleasant memories long before medical or pharmaceutical procedures were suggested. In this study, we review research on autobiographical memory for unpleasant and pleasant memories. We then describe and evaluate a theoretical model, the mnemic neglect model, which purports to explain how memory copes dynamically with selfthreatening information. Autobiographical Memory for Unpleasant and Pleasant Memories In a review of the literature, Baumeister, Bratslavsky, Finkenauer, and Vohs (2001) concluded that negative memories are recalled better than positive memories (an example of the ‘bad is stronger than good’ principle). This conclusion, however, is unwarranted in the domain of autobiographical memory. Indeed, the autobiographical memory literature has established that unpleasant life events are recalled more poorly than pleasant life events (Mather, 2006; Skowronski, Betz, Thompson, & Shannon, 1991; Thompson, Skowronski, Larsen, & Betz, 1996). The fading affect bias (FAB) has been offered as an explanation for this memory discrepancy. According to the FAB, the negative effect linked with autobiographical memories fades faster across time than the positive affect linked with Social and Personality Psychology Compass 3/6 (2009): 1055–1068, 10.1111/j.1751-9004.2009.00220.x a 2009 The Authors Journal Compilation a 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd such memories (Ritchie et al., 2006; Skowronski, Gibbons, Vogl, & Walker, 2004; Walker, Skowronski, & Thompson, 2003). Nevertheless, there are reasons why an experimental paradigm can complement and extend the autobiographical memory findings. As Walker, Skowronski, and Thompson (2003) concluded that the base rate of positive versus negative events in people’s lives is unequal: positive events are about twice as frequent as negative events (50% versus 25%). As such, positive information may be remembered better because it has greater similarity and density in associative memory than negative information does (Unkelbach, Fiedler, Bayer, Stegmueller, & Danner, 2008). Also, environmental cues at encoding (e.g. pleasant surroundings) may account in part for this recall discrepancy. Finally, although some autobiographical memory research has examined the role of memory importance (Ritchie et al., 2006) and compared self versus other memory (Skowronski, Betz, Thompson, & Shannon, 1991), no work in this tradition has investigated these variables simultaneously. Our research, then, complements autobiographical memory literature in that it is concerned with the on-line processing of a concrete and experimentally provided array of relevant information rather than the reconstruction of pleasant or unpleasant life events. Thus, our research exerts tight control over the to-be-remembered material. The ratio of positive to negative information is equal. Environmental cues at encoding are standardized. The role of self versus other memories is taken into consideration; in fact, the same information becomes self-referent in one condition and other-referent in another. Finally, the importance of memories is manipulated. We proceed with the description of our theoretical model and related empirical findings. The Mnemic Neglect Model Applicability domain The model is applicable to circumstances, quite typical we think, in which people receive mixed feedback. A friend may label you with a positive trait, yet add a negative trait. A journal editor may express approval of an aspect of your manuscript, yet disapprove of another. A romantic partner may compliment you for one habit, yet disparage you for another. How do people process and remember positive and negative feedbacks about the self? How do they protect the self from threatening information? Do memories about oneself differ from memories about another person?