The Real‐Time Cognitive Value of Eating Kale, Helping, and Doing Something Special: “Concurrent Experience Evaluation” (CEE), Its Drivers and Moderators, and Research Directions

Abstract

After reviewing prior work regarding components of experience value, I present the concept of “Concurrent Experience Evaluation” (“CEE”), which expands the prior focus on experienced pain and pleasure in response to a stimulus/event. Specifically, the value of an experience is also determined by the concurrent (during‐the‐experience) cognitive assessment of the event relative to the person's associated goal progress/regression. CEE can account for during‐the‐experience and subsequent choices that people make. Examples of CEE include cognitive evaluations that enhance the experience value such as “good for me” (while eating kale), “I'm getting my money's worth” (while using a new camera), and “I'm having a cultural experience” (while visiting a museum), or detract from the experience such as “I shouldn't be doing this” (while smoking or overeating) and “should have chosen the other line” (while waiting at the supermarket checkout). Although prior research has examined hedonic experiences and their context (e.g., being with friends, commuting, colonoscopy) as well as what else the mind may process during an experience (e.g., wandering, thinking of past and future decisions), the concurrent value derived from the cognitive evaluation of the goal implications of an experience has not been identified as a separate experience value component. I examine and illustrate the CEE concept, its determinants, moderators, and implications, as well as its distinctive characteristics as compared with other value perspectives and during‐the‐experience mental processes. Integrating the CEE framework with prior work regarding experience evaluations, I outline a program for future CEE research.