The memory-search frame effect: impacts on consumers’ retrieval and evaluation of consumption experiences

When consumers recall past consumption experiences (e.g., vacations), they often need to search their memory for relevant events within certain time frames (e.g., the past year). We refer to the time frames as memory-search frames. We provide evidence of the ecological validity of this construct and study its effects on consumers’ construction of events from memory. We propose that memory-search frames can affect consumers’ estimation of time via their effects on the retrieval and evaluation of events from memory. Specifically, we show that adopting longer (versus shorter) memory-search frames leads consumers to retrieve experiences that are objectively more distant in the past but at the same time makes them perceive the experiences to be subjectively closer. We demonstrate the implications of the current effect for consumers’ judgment and preference. In addition, we show that memory-search frame length tends to increase with age, which in part underlies the perceptions of accelerated time by old people. Theoretical and practical implications of the present research are discussed.