Biases in retrospective self-report of emotions and pain: Evidence from studies using Experience Sampling Method.

Walentynowicz, Marta [UCL] et al.

Introduction: Retrospective self-report ratings are prone to recall bias. Studies using Experience Sampling Method (ESM) showed that when asked to report on their experiences in the past week, individuals often recall them as more intense than initially reported. This presentation will focus on the characteristics and predictors of recall bias and discuss a recent study exploring recall bias for pain, negative affect (NA), and positive affect (PA) in chronic pain patients. Methods: In two ESM studies, patients rated the intensity of momentary pain, PA, and NA several times a day for two weekly periods. Recall ratings were collected at the end of each week. Results: 7-day recall was higher than the mean momentary ratings for all measures. Recall bias was moderately stable over time, but the cross-domain consistency was low. Recall bias was predicted by variability, peak experience, and state at the moment of recall (for pain and NA) and by trait anxiety (for PA and NA). Conclusions: Individual differences in recall bias were not consistent across domains suggesting that it is not a general phenomenon. However, the predictors of recall bias were similar for emotions and symptoms. This opens important avenues for future research regarding mechanisms underlying recall bias.