The Impact of Reflection on Experience Type Perceptions

Abstract

Whether an experience is perceived as ordinary or extraordinary (i.e., memorable, meaningful, transformational) (Duerden et al., 2018) depends on a variety of potential factors including but not limited to time, social connection, and reflection. The purpose of this experimental study was to assess how activity type, social connection, and reflection type influences experience type, ordinary versus extraordinary, perceptions overtime. Data was collected from 209 undergraduates using a 4x4 experimental design. Participants engaged in one of four different 20-minute activities based upon Melton’s (2017) family activity model (e.g., core:parallel, core:joint, balance:parallel, and balance:joint). Each activity was run for four different groups resulting in 16 different groups. The 16 groups were randomly assigned to four different reflection conditions (i.e., synchronous, asynchronous, solo, none) which occurred two weeks after the initial activities. Repeated measures ANOVAs will be conducted to assess the relationship overtime between activity type, social connection, and perceived experience type. Analysis is currently underway on the collected data and will be completed in time to share at the conference.