Individual differences in optimism predict the recall of personally relevant information

Abstract

The relationship between exercise, dispositional optimism assessed with the life orientation test (LOT, Scheier et al., 1994) and recall of personally more or less useful information was analyzed. After assessment of individual differences in optimism and the intensity of exercising, participants responded to an immediate and a one-week delayed recall test of personally relevant versus irrelevant information. Regression analyses found in support of the hypothesis that attention to and hence recall of health-related information is determined by the extent of its personal relevance; that relevant health-related information was better remembered than irrelevant information, and that this was especially the case for highly active exercisers. Most important, memory for relevant health-related information was best for highly active exercisers who simultaneously scored high in optimism. A delayed recall test found that these findings remained basically stable for one week.