This research assessed the stability of memory for emotions over time, and the relationship between current appraisals and memory for emotions. A week after the televised announcement of the verdict in the criminal trial of Mr Orenthal James (O.J.) Simpson, participants were asked to describe their emotional reactions and their appraisals when they first learned of the verdict. After a delay of two months, and again after more than a year, participants recalled their initial emotional reactions and described their current appraisals of the verdict. After two months, the more participants' appraisals of Mr Simpson's innocence or guilt had changed, the less stable were their memories for the intensities of happiness and anger. After two months, and after more than a year, systematic changes in memory for happiness, anger, and surprise were found in directions consistent with current appraisals. These findings replicate and extend the findings of Levine (1997), and suggest that memories for emotional responses are partially reconstructed based on current appraisals of events.This article examines the stability of people's memories for their past emotions over time and the role of changing appraisals in the reconstruction of such memories. Memory for emotions is important in both clinical and nonclinical settings. Clinical instruments routinely ask people to rate the intensity and

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Little is known about the socialization of compassion, intimacy, sexuality, and risk management within family contexts. In this study, the authors observed parents and young adolescents (N = 140 dyads) in Grades 6-8 during structured communication tasks focused on AIDS. Communication styles were compared across gender pairings, and their relations with AIDS-related knowledge, worry, and stigmatizing attitudes were examined. Parents were more mutual with daughters and more directive toward sons. Girls were more mutual and expressive than boys, whereas boys were more withdrawn. Father-son dyads were particularly distinctive. Student stigmatizing attitudes were associated with low levels of both positive engagement in students and support from parents during the interaction. Discussion focused on family relations during early adolescence and implications for family involvement in AIDS prevention efforts.Whether one considers AIDS prevalence rates, trends in teenage sexuality, or developmental findings on risk behaviors during adolescence, the inescapable conclusion is that

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Two experiments investigated the effects of sadness, anger, and happiness on 4- to 6-year-old children's memory and suggestibility concerning story events. In Experiment 1, children were presented with 3 interactive stories on a video monitor. The stories included protagonists who wanted to give the child a prize. After each story, the child completed a task to try to win the prize. The outcome of the child's effort was manipulated in order to elicit sadness, anger, or happiness. Children's emotions did not affect story recall, but children were more vulnerable to misleading questions about the stories when sad than when angry or happy. In Experiment 2, a story was presented and emotions were elicited using an autobiographical recall task. Children responded to misleading questions and then recalled the story for a different interviewer. Again, children's emotions did not affect the amount of story information recalled correctly, but sad children incorporated more information from misleading questions during recall than did angry or happy children. Sad children's greater suggestibility is discussed in terms of the differing problem-solving strategies associated with discrete emotions.