Music is a temporal experience that can elicit fluctuating moment-to-moment intensities of affect, yet the relationship between moment-to-moment affect during a musical experience and subsequent retrospective evaluations (REs) of the experience is unclear. Three aspects of this relationship were investigated: overweighting of specific moments (peak and end), segmentation of an experience (cohesive [individual pieces] vs. segmented [collection of pieces]), and trend of experience (increasing vs. decreasing trends of affect intensity). Across two studies, participants (N = 123) listened to a recital (set) of six pieces and provided moment-to-moment evaluations of emotional intensity, as well as global REs of the pieces and the entire set. Trend was manipulated (between-subjects) by ordering pieces by increasing (Low-High) or decreasing (High- Low) emotional intensity. The peak-end did not contribute substantially to REs for individual pieces. REs of the recital relied on averages of global ratings of individual pieces rather than momentary affect, suggesting that segmented and cohesive experiences are evaluated differently. The Low-High group produced higher REs of emotional intensity than the High-Low group, demonstrating a trend effect. The average is proposed as the most appropriate predictor for REs in affective—including musical—experiences, with overweighting of certain moments based on memorability (rather than the peak-end). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved
