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How Valence and Motivation Interact to Shape Autobiographical Memories

Poster Session D - Monday, March 9, 2026, 8:00 – 10:00 am PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Ga In Shin¹ (), Vishnu Murty¹; ¹University of Oregon

In the context of affect, research has separately characterized the roles of valence (negative to positive) and motivation (not goal-relevant to goal-relevant) in influencing episodic memory. However, in real life, these two features often intersect; highly goal-relevant memories can be both negative (e.g., survival) and positive (e.g., achievement). Here, we tested whether valence and motivation interact to influence autobiographical memory vividness, which represents the richness of memory retrieval. Participants (N = 36; 16 female; M_age = 31.94, SD_age = 6.08) completed a 4-week online study. In Week 1, they identified significant and mundane personal events that occurred within the prior two weeks. Across the next three weeks, they recollected and rated those same events. Each week, they rated valence (0 negative to 100 positive), motivation (0 not goal-relevant to 100 very goal-relevant), and vividness (0 not vivid to 100 very vivid). Linear mixed-effects models (random effects: participant, week) showed that both valence and goal-relevance significantly interacted to predict vividness (β = .22, t = 4.26, p < .001), such that goal-relevance significantly predicted vividness for neutral (β = .24, t = 4.34, p < .001) and positive (β = .46, t = 6.31, p < .001) memories, but negative memories were rated as vivid regardless of their goal-relevance (β = .02, t = .27, p = .79). Autobiographical memory vividness is therefore shaped by both affective value and goal-relevance, revealing joint effects of valence and goal-relevance on vividness.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic