Table 2.
Measures of future event fluency, characteristics, and richness
| Event Fluency Think of as many [neg/pos] events as you can | Event Characteristics Rate each [previously listed] event | Event Richness Tell me as much detail as you can about [select event] | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vivid | Duration | Likely | Similar | Valence | Arousal | ||||
| Negative | 1 | I will wait for the bus in the cold tonight | 5 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | It’ll feel like it’s below freezing [PE] / at the bus station [PL] / waiting for the 66 to arrive. [E] / It usually takes me 15 minutes to walk to the bus stop from work / so this should be around 5:30 or so. [T] / Sometimes I forget my gloves / when I leave the house in the morning. / And I’ll be wondering how, yet again, I could forget gloves on such a cold day. [ET] / I’ll stick my hands in my pockets [E] / but still feel the cold wind hit my bare wrists. [PE] / |
| 2 | I will be late for work | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | ||
| 3 | I will be sick | 2 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | ||
| Positive | 1 | I will play board games with friends | 4 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 3 | We’ll drive up [E] / to the steakhouse [PL] / around 7:00. [T] / It’s an expensive restaurant / but we go since we hear that the food is worth it. / We’ll sit down [E] / and order some beers [E] / and hear a game on TV in the background. [PE] / Maybe the Red Sox are playing the Yankees. [E] / And I look at the menu [E] / and am tempted by all of the starters. [ET] / The waitress will then walk up. [E] / I order a boneless rib-eye [E] / cooked medium-well [E] / with sauce on the side. [E] / |
| 2 | I will try a new restaurant this weekend | 5 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | ||
| 3 | I will do well at work | 2 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 3 | ||
| 4 | I will buy flowers | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | ||
Note. Example responses are provided for fluency, characteristics, and richness of future (next week) events. Event fluency was assessed based on the ability to list as many events as possible in 1 minute. This process was implemented through four conditions determined by the combination of emotional valence (positive vs. negative) and temporal distance (next week vs. next 5–10 years). Event characteristics were assessed based on self-report ratings provided for each aforementioned future event. Event richness was assessed using internal details (IDs) coded from a bolded, single-event assessment, determined based on self-report ratings indicating sufficient temporal specificity and high vividness (i.e., highest vividness rating among those events with duration ratings equal to or less than 3). Bracketed annotations refer to internal detail subtypes assigned by coders: [E]=event, [T]=time, [PL]=place, [PE]=perceptual, [ET]=emotion/thought. Slashes separate individual detail segments, bolded text mark internal details, and italicized text grey highlights mark external details.