Remembering Choices

University Of California-Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz CA

Investigators

Abstract

The proposed research focuses on people's memory for past choices. Memory for choices has the potential to affect people's self-concept, well-being, attitudes, and future decisions. Regret for options not taken can cast a shadow, whereas satisfaction at having made the right choice can make a good outcome seem even better. Our memories of past options provide essential information about our tastes and experience in the context of current and future decisions. These memories have implications for other people as well (e.g., as we give advice about others' choices or participate in collective decisions). Understanding the causes and consequences of distortion in memory for choices, and possible ways to avoid such distortion, can have far- reaching benefits in domains ranging from therapy and consumer education to medical decision making and the law. Theoretical explanations of memory distortion share many common themes and emphasize the constructive nature of memory (e.g., Bransford & Johnson, 1973; Loftus, 1979; Reyna & Lloyd, 1997; Roediger & McDermott, 2000; Schacter, Norman, & Koutstaal, 1998). The current proposal uses the source monitoring framework (e.g., Johnson, Hashtroudi, & Lindsay, 1993), one of the most well-developed theoretical approaches to memory and its distortions, to help predict how factors that have been shown to be associated with memory distortion will affect memory for choices. Preliminary work (e.g., Mather, Shafir, & Johnson, 2000) indicates that people have choice-supportive biases in memory, favoring the option selected over the one rejected. This choice-supportive tendency goes beyond simply selectively remembering the strengths of chosen options and the weak attributes of rejected alternatives. People also tend to make errors that favor their chosen option, misattributing positive features to their chosen option and negative features to the rejected option. The studies in the first section of the proposal investigate the mechanisms underlying such choice-supportive memory distortion. The second section investigates some potential effects of choice- supportive memory on well-being and on future decisions, and the final section investigates how choice- supportive biases may be avoided or attenuated. Remembering choices plays a central role in making future decisions. A better understanding of memory distortion and its influences may help improve decision making in important domains. Better insight into the role of memory also promises to add to our understanding of intuitive decision making practices and emergent biases. Finally, an understanding of how memory of past decisions affects our satisfaction, goals, perceived responsibility, and remembered experience may contribute to well-being in numerous ways. The proposed studies are intended to shed light on how past choices may be remembered or misremembered, on how these tendencies may be altered, and on the hedonic consequences that such alterations might have.