Commensurate with the importance of rapidly and efficiently evaluating motivationally significant stimuli, humans are probably endowed with distinct faculties1,2 and maintain specialized neural structures to enhance their detection. Here we consider that a critical function of the human amygdala3,4 is to enhance the perception of stimuli that have emotional significance. Under conditions of limited attention for normal perceptual awareness—that is, the attentional blink5,6—we show that...

The authors argue that human desire involves conscious cognition that has strong affective connotation and is potentially involved in the determination of appetitive behavior rather than being epiphenomenal to it. Intrusive thoughts about appetitive targets are triggered automatically by external or physiological cues and by cognitive associates. When intrusions elicit significant pleasure or relief, cognitive elaboration usually ensues. Elaboration competes with concurrent cognitive tasks through...

Visual imagery is used in a wide range of mental activities, ranging from memory to reasoning, and also plays a role in perception proper. The contribution of early visual cortex, specifically Area 17, to visual mental imagery was examined by the use of two convergent techniques. In one, subjects closed their eyes during positron emission tomography (PET) while they visualized and compared properties (for example,...

Preferences often fluctuate as a result of transient changes in hunger and other visceral states. When current decisions have delayed consequences, the preferences that should be relevant are those that will prevail when the consequences occur. However, consistent with the notion of an intrapersonal empathy gap (Loewenstein, 1996) we find that an individual's current state of appetite has a significant effect on choices that apply...

In 5 studies, the authors examined people's perceptions of the endowment effect, or the tendency to value an object more once one owns it. In the 1st 2 studies, the authors documented egocentric empathy gaps between owners and buyers regarding the endowment effect: Both owners and buyers overestimated the similarity between their own valuation of a commodity and the valuation of people in the other...

This research assessed the stability of peoples' memory for their past emotions over time and the role of changing appraisals in accounting for biases in emotion recall. Following Ross Perot's abrupt withdrawal from the presidential race in July 1992, supporters (N = 227) rated their initial emotional reactions and described their interpretations of the event. After the elections in November, supporters (N = 147) again recalled their initial emotional...

How accurately can people remember how they felt in the past? Although some investigators hold that emotional memories are resistant to change, we review evidence that current emotions, appraisals, and coping efforts, as well as personality traits, are all associated with bias in recalling past emotions. Bias occurs as memories of emotional states are updated in light of subsequent experience and goals. Biased memories in...

At 6 months following the death of their spouse, 37 participants reported their grief-related symptoms and thoughts, and then, approximately 4.5 years later, they attempted to recall how they felt at the time of the 6-month report. Although participants were far less distressed at recall than initially, they recalled their 6-month grief rather accurately. Participants did however overestimate prior grief-related intrusive ideation. Participant's current level...

ObjectivesThe unreliability of human memory is well documented in the literature, yet psychiatrists and other mental health care professionals rely on patient self-report in history-taking. This study provides new evidence from a longitudinal study of autobiographical memory and discusses implications for the development and implementation of appropriate treatment plans and goals.MethodSeventy-three mentally healthy 14-year-old males were studied in 1962. Sixty-seven of these subjects were reinterviewed...

This present study examined agreement between retrospective accounts of substance use and earlier re ported substance use in a high school age sample. Three issues were addressed: (1) extent of overall agreement; (2) evidence for the presence of a response-shift bias; and (3) extent to which current use biases recall of substance use. Subjects were 415 high school students who took part in a smoking...