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When expectancy meets desire: motivational effects in reconstructive memory

H E McDonald1, E R Hirt

  • 1Department of Psychology, Indiana University, Bloomington 47405, USA. hmcdona2@abacus.bates.edu

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
|January 1, 1997
PubMed
Summary

Motivational factors influence memory reconstruction. When personal desires align with expectations, memory is distorted; when they conflict, memory remains unbiased, demonstrating motivation

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Social Psychology
  • Memory Studies

Background:

  • Reconstructive memory involves retrieving and rebuilding past events.
  • Motivational factors can influence cognitive processes, including memory.
  • Previous research suggests expectations can bias memory recall.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how motivational factors, specifically the desire for expectancy confirmation, affect reconstructive memory.
  • To examine the role of liking in moderating the influence of expectancies on memory recall.
  • To determine if the order of information presentation impacts the discounting of expectancies.

Main Methods:

  • Two studies were conducted using a reconstructive memory paradigm.
  • Participants were presented with target information (midterm grades) and had expectancies about the target manipulated.

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  • Participant liking for the target was manipulated (likable vs. unlikable) to create matched or mismatched conditions between expectancy and liking.

    • Main Results:

    • When expectancies and liking matched, participants showed significant expectancy-congruent memory distortion.
    • When expectancies and liking mismatched, participants exhibited little to no expectancy-congruent distortion.
    • The order of expectancy and liking information influenced how participants discounted expectancies in mismatch conditions.

    Conclusions:

    • Motivational goals, such as the desire for expectancy confirmation, significantly bias reconstructive memory.
    • Memory reconstruction is affected not only by memory search but also by the modification of existing memory traces.
    • The findings highlight the dynamic interplay between motivation, expectation, and memory accuracy.