Event self-importance, event rehearsal, and the fading affect bias in autobiographical memory

Prior research suggests that the negative affect associated with autobiographical memories fades faster across time than the positive affect associated with such memories (i.e., the fading affect bias, FAB). Data described in the present article reveal several moderators of this bias. The FAB is small when events are perceived to be self-important, psychologically open, or self-caused; it is large when events are perceived to be atypical of a person's life. The data also suggest that the FAB is especially large when events are rehearsed in the course of conveying events to others, or when events are being privately savored or solved; this effect does not emerge for various other forms of private rehearsal. Theoretical implications of these results are discussed.