Healthcare workers' memories in the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of visual perspective and event centrality in subjective temporal distance

Abstract

We investigated the factors associated with subjective temporal distance of pandemic-related events in a sample of healthcare workers. A total of 257 healthcare workers were asked to recall two COVID-19 pandemic-related events that impacted them the most at the beginning of the pandemic (April–May 2020), and rated event centrality, phenomenological characteristics, subjective temporal distance, and visual perspective (field vs. observer) for each reported event. Results showed a negative relationship between subjective temporal distance and event centrality only for memories remembered from the field perspective (field memories), but not those remembered from the observer perspective (observer memories). Furthermore, event centrality enhanced recollection of sensory and perceptual details, which, in turn, resulted in memories being felt temporally closer to people. However, only field memories, not observer memories, revealed this pattern, showing that recollective experience shaped by visual perspective mediates the relationship between event centrality and subjective temporal distance.