retrospection

Retrospection is the act of looking back on past events, experiences, or states of affairs, with or without emotional content. The word comes from Latin retro-, meaning back, and specere, meaning to look. In psychology, retrospection involves the retrieval and evaluation of autobiographical memories. It can be voluntary, as when a person reflects on a decision, or involuntary, when memories surface without deliberate effort. Retrospection engages memory reconstruction, interpretation, and meaning-making, and it can elicit a range of emotions from nostalgia to regret. Because memory is fallible, retrospective judgments are susceptible to biases such as hindsight bias, presentism, and memory distortion.

Across domains, retrospection serves different purposes. In history and literary criticism, it denotes reflective analysis of past eras or works. In the arts, a retrospective refers to exhibitions or films that survey an artist’s or creator’s body of work over a period. In business and software development, a retrospective is a structured reflection on a completed cycle or project to identify lessons and improvements; in Agile methods, the sprint retrospective is a recurring meeting aimed at process adjustment.

Retrospection is often contrasted with nostalgia, which is a longing for the past rather than a critical assessment of it. While retrospective reflection can support learning and personal growth, it can also distort judgment if not balanced by critical evaluation and awareness of cognitive biases.