title: In pain thou shalt bring forth children: the peak-and-end rule in recall of labor pain.
abstract: Childbirth is usually the most painful event of a mother's life, and resonates in individual and collective memory for years. The current study examined the relationship between the experience of labor pain and its recollection 2 days and 2 months after delivery. We found that despite the exceptional physical and emotional experiences of childbirth, the memory of the pain involved in labor was biased toward the average of the peak pain and the end pain, whereas the duration of the delivery had a relatively negligible effect on the recollected intensity of pain. A comparison of mothers whose labor ended with or without epidural analgesia corroborated previous findings that the level of pain toward the end of an experience greatly influences the way the overall experience is remembered. Although both short- and long-term retention of memories of labor exhibited the peak-and-end effect, having given birth before weakened the effect 2 months after delivery.
authors.affiliation: Department of Education and Psychology, Open University of Israel eranch@openu.ac.il.
authors.forename: Eran
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Chajut
authors.affiliation: Department of Education and Psychology, Open University of Israel.
authors.forename: Avner
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Caspi
authors.affiliation: Rabin Medical Center, Petah-Tikva, Israel.
authors.forename: Rony
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Rabin Medical Center, Petah-Tikva, Israel.
authors.forename: Moshe
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hod
authors.affiliation: Department of Marketing, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University.
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ariely
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015360:Analgesia, Epidural / Q000523:psychology; D016362:Analgesia, Obstetrical / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D048949:Labor Pain / Q000523:psychology*; D011939:Mental Recall; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: judgment; memory; pain