RECONSTRUCTING MEMORY FOR EMOTIONS

This research assessed the stability of peoples' memory for their past emotions over time and the role of changing appraisals in accounting far biases in emotion recall. Following Ross Perot's abrupt withdrawal from the presidential race in July 1992, supporters (N = 227) rated t heir initial emotional reactions and described their interpretations o f the event. After the elections in November, supporters (N = 147) aga in recalled their initial emotional reactions and described their curr ent appraisals of Perot. In contrast to some current models, memories for past emotions were not indelible, and a general tendency to overes timate the intensity of past emotions was not observed. Rather, system atic distortions in emotion recall were found in the direction of cons istency with current appraisals. ?These findings support the conclusio n that memories for emotional responses are partially reconstructed or inferred on the basis of current appraisals of events.