MEMORY DISTORTIONS IN THE RESEARCH OF EMOTIONS

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Published: Dec 10, 2015
Keywords:
memory distortions, emotions, coping, neuroticism

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Ana Genc
Filozofski fakultet Univerziteta u Novom Sadu

Abstract

The memories of one’s life, or autobiographical memories, are transitory dynamic mental constructions. The human memory is both solid and fragile. We own durable and lasting traces of many events, but also we can forget other events just moments after they occured. Our memories of past experiences are never exact reproductions of the original, initial events. Besides the memory biases that are related to details about past happenings, distortions are also present in the remembering of emotions that we have experienced during an important past event. The present review paper starts with the scientific definition of the so-called flashbulb memories (emotion- ally colored memories), and discusses the existing contemporary empirical knowledge about the mistakes and distortions in the process of remembaring past life experiences. A special attention is paid to the number of details that people remember about their autobiographical memories. The study also contains a review of available research results on the accuracy of human memory. The second part of the paper places the phenomenon of memory distortions into the conceptual frame- work of the Transactional theory of stress, with special attention to the process of remembering coping efforts and mechanisms used in the past. The paper ends with a discussion about the role of neuroticism in the emerging of memory biases.

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How to Cite
Genc, A. (2015). MEMORY DISTORTIONS IN THE RESEARCH OF EMOTIONS. ANNUAL REVIEW OF THE FACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY, 40(2), 153–168. Retrieved from https://godisnjak.ff.uns.ac.rs/index.php/gff/article/view/1513
Issue
Vol. 40 No. 2 (2015)
Section
Психологија

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