We apply an autobiographical memory framework to the study of regret. Focusing on the distinction between regrets for specific and general events we argue that the temporal profile of regret, usually explained in terms of the action-inaction distinction, is predicted by models of autobiographical memory. In two studies involving participants in their sixties we demonstrate a reminiscence bump for general, but not for specific regrets. Recent regrets were more likely to be specific than general in nature. Coding regrets as actions/inactions revealed that general regrets were significantly more likely to be due to inaction while specific regrets were as likely to be due to action as to inaction. In Study 2 we also generalised all of these findings to a group of participants in their 40s. We re-interpret existing accounts of the temporal profile of regret within the autobiographical memory framework, and outline the practical and theoretical advantages of our memory-based distinction over traditional decision-making approaches to the study of regret.

中文翻译：

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后悔是自传式的记忆

我们将自传记忆框架应用于后悔的研究。专注于特定事件和一般事件的后悔之间的区别，我们认为后悔的时间分布，通常用作为 - 不作为的区别来解释，是由自传体记忆模型预测的。在两项涉及 60 多岁参与者的研究中，我们展示了一般的回忆，但不是特定的遗憾。最近的遗憾在本质上更可能是具体的而不是一般的。将后悔编码为行动/不作为表明，一般后悔更可能是由于不作为，而特定后悔可能是由于行动和不作为。在研究 2 中，我们还将所有这些发现推广到一组 40 多岁的参与者。