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The Relationship between Rumination and Autobiographical Memory Specificity in People with Depression
... We suggest that the intense use of rumination in response to a negative event may involve a considerable cognitive cost due to an increased focus on the negatively valenced cognitive and emotional components of the experience, which in turn could decrease the attentional resources available to encode and subsequently remember secondary information, such as sensory, visual and spatial details. In this direction, a previous study suggested that rumination may lead to an overloading of the working memory because of a deficit in shutting down negative material, which in turn might result in decreased specific memories [40]. This would explain why, for intense ruminators, memory retrieval was better when the emotional intensity of the event was low. ...
When facing a negative event, people implement different strategies to regulate ongoing emotions. Although the previous literature has suggested that the emotional intensity of a negative episode is associated with the characteristics of the subsequent autobiographical memory, it is still unknown whether emotion regulation (ER) moderates this relationship. In the present study, we provided undergraduate students with a smartphone-based diary to report a negative episode immediately after its occurrence and rate the momentary use of two ER strategies: cognitive reappraisal and rumination. To explore autobiographical memory, two “surprise” recall tasks were performed one week and one month after the event. According to the results, cognitive reappraisal was linked with better memory performances, and a tendency to retrospectively underestimate the negativity of highly intense events was observed only in participants adopting high rates of this strategy. Conversely, intense rumination was found to be associated with less detailed memories of emotionally intense events, as well as with higher emotional involvement with negative episodes over time, regardless of their intensity. Together, our results support the maladaptive role of rumination and the adaptive influence of cognitive reappraisal on autobiographical memory.
... Ruminative processes that occur during the recall bias use up cognitive resources that otherwise would have been directed towards accessing the specifics of AM (Van Vreeswijk & de Wilde, 2004). To demonstrate this, Cheung, Sin, Lam, and Lee (2018) assessed the specificity of AM in MDD patients following negative and positive rumination induction. Results showed that MDD patients, relative to controls, produced fewer specific AMs following negative rumination compared to positive rumination. ...
[Background] In the 50 years following Beck’s cognitive theory, empirical research has consistently supported the role of dysfunctional, ‘hot’ cognition in the onset and maintenance of major depressive disorder. Compromised ‘cold’ cognition in attention, memory, and executive control abilities, independent of the affective state, has attracted much clinical interest for its role throughout the course of illness and into remission. We propose integrating cold cognition into Beck’s cognitive theory framework to account for the complementary roles of both hot and cold cognition in depression onset and maintenance. [Method] A critical review of cognitive research was conducted to inform an integrated hot-cold cognitive model of depression. [Results] Cold cognitive deficits likely act as a gateway to facilitate the activation and expression of the hot cognitive biases through a weakened ability to attend, retrieve, and critically assess information. Cold deficits become exacerbated by the negative mood state, essentially ‘becoming hot’, lending to maladaptive emotion regulation through ruminative processes. Depleted cognitive resources contribute to the manifestation of further deficit in problem-solving ability in everyday life, which in itself, may act as a stressor for the onset of recurrent episodes, perpetuating the depressive cycle. [Conclusion] We discuss the interaction between hot and cold cognition within the cognitive theory framework and the potential of complementary hot-cold pathways to elucidate novel means of prevention and treatment for depression.
Mildly-to-moderately depressed and nondepressed subjects were randomly assigned to spend 8 minutes focusing their attention on their current feeling states and personal characteristics (rumination condition) or on descriptions of geographic locations and objects (distraction condition). Depressed subjects in the rumination condition became significantly more depressed, whereas depressed subjects in the distraction condition became significantly less depressed. Rumination and distraction did not affect the moods of nondepressed subjects. These results support the hypothesis that ruminative responses to depressed mood exacerbate and prolong depressed mood. whereas distracting response shorten depressed mood.
The primary purpose of this study was to test for the validity of a Chinese version of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (C-BDI-II) for use with Hong Kong community (i.e., nonclinical) adolescents. Based on a randomized triadic split of the data (N = 1460), we conducted exploratory factor analysis on Group 1 (n = 486) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) within the framework of structural equation modeling on Groups 2 (n = 487) and 3 (n = 487); the second CFA served as a cross-validation of the determined factor structure. Factor analytic results, based on a 4-factor structure that comprised 1 2nd-order general factor of Depression and 31st-order factors representing Negative Attitude, Performance Difficulty, and Somatic Elements, replicated those reported previously for Canadian (Byrne & Baron, 1993), Swedish (Byrne, Baron, Larsson, & Melin, 1995), and Bulgarian (Byrne, Baron, & Balev, 1998) nonclinical adolescents. Based on this cross-validated factor structure, findings related to internal consistency reliability, stability over a 6-month time lag, and relations with relevant external criteria provided strong support for the valid use of the C-BDI-II in measuring depressive symptoms for Hong Kong community adolescents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In an attempt to eliminate similar item content as an alternative explanation for the relation between depression and rumination, a secondary analysis was conducted using the data from S. Nolen-Hoeksema, J. Larson, and C. Grayson (1999). After constructing a measure of rumination unconfounded with depression content, support for a two factor model of rumination was found. These analyses indicate that the 2 components, reflective pondering and brooding, differentially relate to depression in terms of predictive ability and gender difference mediation. The results presented here support the general premise of Nolen-Hoeksema's Response Styles Theory (S. Nolen-Hoeksema 1987) that rumination can contribute to more depressive symptoms and to the gender difference in depression, but suggest important refinements of the theory. Such refinements include the need to differentiate between the reflective pondering component of rumination and the brooding component in rumination research. Peer Reviewed http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44342/1/10608_2004_Article_464752.pdf
Measures of emotional health and styles of responding to negative moods were obtained for 137 students 14 days before the Loma Prieta earthquake. A follow-up was done 10 days again 7 weeks after the earthquake to test predictions about which of the students would show the most enduring symptoms of depression and posttraumatic stress. Regression analysis showed that students who, before the earthquake, already had elevated levels of depression and stress symptoms and a ruminative style of responding to their symptoms had more depression and stress symptoms for both follow-ups. Students who were exposed to more dangerous or difficult circumstances because of the earthquake also had elevated symptom levels 10 days after the earthquake. Similarly, students who, during the 10 days after the earthquake, had more ruminations about the earthquake were still more likely to have high levels of depressive and stress symptoms 7 weeks after the earthquake.
Increased recall of categorical autobiographical memories is a phenomenon unique to depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, and is associated with a poor prognosis for depression. Although the elevated recall of categorical memories does not change on remission from depression, recent findings suggest that overgeneral memory may be reduced by cognitive interventions and maintained by rumination. This study tested whether cognitive manipulations could influence the recall of categorical memories in dysphoric participants.
Forty-eight dysphoric and depressed participants were randomly allocated to rumination or distraction conditions. Before and after the manipulation, participants completed the Autobiographical Memory Test, a standard measure of overgeneral memory. Participants were then randomized to either a 'decentring' question (Socratic questions designed to facilitate viewing moods within a wider perspective) or a control question condition, before completing the Autobiographical Memory Test again.
Distraction produced significantly greater decreases in the proportion of memories retrieved that were categorical than rumination. Decentring questions produced significantly greater decreases in the proportion of memories retrieved that were categorical than control questions, with this effect independent of the prior manipulation.
Elevated categorical memory in depression is more modifiable than has been previously assumed; it may reflect the dynamic maintenance of a cognitive style that can be interrupted by brief cognitive interventions.
Previous research has shown that, compared with a rumination induction, a brief distraction procedure reduces overgeneral autobiographical memory in depression. The authors investigated whether this effect depends on reductions in analytic thinking or reductions in self-focus. Focus of attention (high vs. low self-focus) and thinking style (high vs. low analytical thinking) were independently manipulated in depressed patients in a 2 x 2 design. Autobiographical recall was measured pre- and postmanipulation. Thinking style significantly affected overgeneral memory, whereas focus of attention significantly affected despondent mood. Reducing analytical self-focus reduced overgeneral memory, suggesting that high levels of naturally occurring ruminative analytic thinking may be important in the maintenance of overgeneral memory. Overgeneral memory in depression may be associated with chronic ruminative attempts to make sense of current or past difficulties.
This study examined the stability of autobiographical memory dysfunction (i.e., difficulties in retrieving specific memories) during the course of major depressive disorder, its relation to early adverse experiences, and its influence on the course of depressive disorder. Using the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT), specificity of autobiographical memory was assessed in 25 subjects with a current depressive disorder at baseline, and at 3 and 7 months follow-up. Also, information about self-reported childhood traumatization, and demographic and clinical variables was obtained. Autobiographical memory performance was relatively stable over time despite clinical improvement in the sample. It was not related to depression severity at baseline, while higher levels of childhood traumatization were correlated with more specific memory performance to negative cue words at baseline, but not during follow-up. Specific autobiographical responses to negative cue words predicted a better prognosis, whereas specific responses to positive cue words were not related to prognosis. Autobiographical memory dysfunction in depression appears to be stable over time, is related to short-term prognosis in depression, and may act as a vulnerability factor that influences the long-term course of depressive disorders.
An important cognitive deficit in clinical depression is the inability to be specific in recalling personal memories, a phenomenon coined "overgeneral memory" by Williams and Broadbent. Although there is general consensus that overgeneral memory is not state-dependent, most of the evidence originates from studies of this effect in clinical populations. The two components of mood, valence and arousal, were manipulated to examine their influence on memory specificity in a nonclinical sample of university undergraduate students. In Exp. 1, a Velten procedure was used to induce elated, depressed, or neutral mood states. No difference was found in autobiographical memory specificity among the three groups. In Exp. 2, high and low arousal states were induced through physical exercise. A low arousal state resulted in an increased proportion of overgeneral memories, suggesting that this memory phenomenon may be influenced by the arousal component of mood.
Depressed individuals endeavor to suppress intrusive thoughts and memories as a form of mood control. Two predictions from this literature were examined. The 1st was that attempts to suppress a preselected negative memory during a stream-of-consciousness (SOC) task in dysphoric individuals, relative to a no-suppress condition, would lead to relatively speeded access to other negative but not positive memories on a subsequent cue-word recall task. No such effects were predicted for nondysphoric controls. The 2nd prediction was that, across all participants who were asked to suppress memories, higher levels of depressed mood would be associated with more intrusions of the to-be-suppressed memory during the SOC and that this association would be stronger than the comparable relation in participants who were not asked to suppress memories. Results support both predictions.
The authors review research showing that when recalling autobiographical events, many emotionally disturbed patients summarize categories of events rather than retrieving a single episode. The mechanisms underlying such overgeneral memory are examined, with a focus on M. A. Conway and C. W. Pleydell-Pearce's (2000) hierarchical search model of personal event retrieval. An elaboration of this model is proposed to account for overgeneral memory, focusing on how memory search can be affected by (a) capture and rumination processes, when mnemonic information used in retrieval activates ruminative thinking; (b) functional avoidance, when episodic material threatens to cause affective disturbance; and (c) impairment in executive capacity and control that limits an individual's ability to remain focused on retrieval in the face of distraction.
An important cognitive marker of clinical depression is a reduced ability to be specific in recalling personal memories, a phenomenon coined 'overgeneral memory'. Overgeneral memory is considered as a stable cognitive trait that is intrinsically linked with depression and independent of mood state. Previous studies show that autobiographical memory is modifiable.
This study investigated whether autobiographical memory is differentially affected by treatment type. Depressed patients were randomly assigned to receive either cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) for depression or pharmacotherapy (PHT).
The proportion of categoric memories decreased and the proportion of specific memories increased following both types of treatments, adding support to the view that overgeneral memory is modifiable. CBT also had a greater impact on reducing extended overgeneral memories compared to PHT.
The results from the current study are important in that they show that overgeneral memory can be targeted and modified through brief treatment. The clinical significance of the finding that there was a greater decrease in extended memories in the CBT group is unclear.
This study examined the relationship between analytical rumination and autobiographical memory specificity in participants with a history of depression. Participants completed the autobiographical memory test twice, once before and once after an 8 min manipulation designed to increase either an abstract/analytical or concrete/experiential mode of information processing. Results indicated a significant three-way time (pre, post) x manipulation (analytical, experiential) x depressive rumination (high, low) interaction. This interaction was the result of a significant decline in memory specificity from pre- to post-manipulation in individuals reporting high levels of rumination about symptoms when depressed who were allocated to the analytical condition. The findings of this study extend previous work, suggesting that low memory specificity in formerly depressed patients may be a function of state levels of analytical self-focus, with this cognitive style being more easily reinstated in the recovery phase in those who report a greater trait tendency to ruminate about symptoms when low in mood.
This chapter is divided into two parts. The first describes the effect of Pat Rabbitt's influence in encouraging the first author to use the increasingly sophisticated methods of ageing research to answer questions about the fundamental characteristics of working memory, together with reflections on why so little of this work reached publication. The second part presents a brief review of the literature on working memory and ageing, followed by an account of more recent work attempting to apply the traditional method of experimental dissociation to research on normal ageing and Alzheimer's disease. The discussion suggests that even such simple methods can throw light on both the processes of ageing and the understanding of working memory.
A study was conducted in which 133 participants performed 11 memory tasks (some thought to reflect working memory and some thought to reflect short-term memory), 2 tests of general fluid intelligence, and the Verbal and Quantitative Scholastic Aptitude Tests. Structural equation modeling suggested that short-term and working memories reflect separate but highly related constructs and that many of the tasks used in the literature as working memory tasks reflect a common construct. Working memory shows a strong connection to fluid intelligence, but short-term memory does not. A theory of working memory capacity and general fluid intelligence is proposed: The authors argue that working memory capacity and fluid intelligence reflect the ability to keep a representation active, particularly in the face of interference and distraction. The authors also discuss the relationship of this capability to controlled attention, and the functions of the prefrontal cortex.
Background
Longitudinal studies of illness progression in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) indicate that the onset of subsequent depressive episodes becomes increasingly decoupled from external stressors. A possible mechanism underlying this phenomenon is that multiple episodes induce long-lasting neurobiological changes that confer increased risk for recurrence. Prior morphometric studies have frequently reported volumetric reductions in MDD—especially in medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and the hippocampus— but few studies have investigated whether these changes are exacerbated by prior episodes.
Methods
We used structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) to examine relationships between number of prior episodes, current stress, and brain volume and cortical thickness in a sample of 103 medication-free depressed patients and never-depressed controls. Volumetric analyses of the hippocampus were performed using a recently-validated subfield segmentation approach, while cortical thickness estimates were obtained using Vertex-Based Cortical Thickness (VBCT). Participants were grouped on the basis of the number of prior depressive episodes as well as current depressive state.
Results
Number of prior episodes was associated with both lower reported stress levels as well as reduced volume in the dentate gyrus. Cortical thinning of the left medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) was associated with a greater number of prior depressive episodes, but not current depressive state.
Conclusions
Collectively, these findings are consistent with preclinical models suggesting that the dentate gyrus and mPFC are especially vulnerable to stress exposure, and provide evidence for morphometric changes that are consistent with stress-sensitization models of recurrence in MDD.
This article reviews the papers published in this Special Issue of Cognition and Emotion on Specificity in Autobiographical Memory. Together, the studies address some critical issues relating to the etiology of and mechanisms underlying the phenomenon of overgeneral memory. In terms of etiology, there is now substantial evidence of links between overgeneral memory and current or past depression, and between overgeneral memory and trauma history, and suicidal ideation and behaviour, independent of depression. In terms of mechanisms, three factors are emerging as the critical mechanisms underlying the phenomenon: Capture and rumination (CaR), functional avoidance (FA), and executive control dysfunction (X). Each of these has separately been found to produce overgenerality in memory; together they are almost certain to do so.
This study investigates inhibitory dysfunctions in the processing of emotional material and their relation to depressive symptomatology and vulnerability. In a series of three experiments, a negative priming task with positive and negative distractor and target words was presented. The negative priming task makes it possible to assess the degree of inhibition of activated but nongoal‐relevant stimulus representations. Results indicate that participants with elevated depression scores fail to show negative priming in affective evaluation and self‐reference tasks. Moreover, participants reporting a history of major depressive episodes fail to show negative priming when asked to respond to the valence or self‐descriptiveness of emotional stimuli. The obtained results are in line with the hypothesis that depression is associated with an inhibitory deficit for negative information. Implications of these results for research on selective attention in depression are discussed.
The effect of specificity of autobiographical memory (AM) retrieval on the affective impact of an emotional event was examined. In Study 1 (N = 90) the impact of a negative and positive experience was compared between student participants who habitually retrieve autobiographical memories (AMs) in a specific way and participants who generally retrieve less specific memories. In Study 2 (N = 48) the effect of an experimentally induced (specific vs. overgeneral) retrieval style on the impact of a negative experience was studied in student participants who habitually retrieve less specific memories. Study 1 replicated the finding of Raes, Hermans, de Decker, Eelen, & Williams (2003) that a negative event leads to less subjective distress in low-specific participants as compared with high-specific participants. However, both groups did not differ in their affective reaction to a positive event. Important, reduced memory specificity was associated with "repressive coping", providing further evidence for the idea that reduced memory specificity is used as an avoidant or repressive-defensive mechanism to regulate negative affect (Williams, 1996). In Study 2, participants who were induced to retrieve memories in an overgeneral way experienced more distress following a negative event as compared wit participants who were induced to retrieve memories in a specific way. Results are discussed in the context of recent findings concerning AM specificity and emotion regulation (Philippot, Schaefer, & Herbette, 2003). Directions for further research are suggested.
Five studies examined the extent to which autobiographical memory retrieval is hierarchical, whether a hierarchical search depends on central executive resources, and whether retrieving memories that are “higher” in the hierarchy impairs problem‐solving ability. The first study found that random generation (assessed using a button‐pressing task) was sensitive to changes in memory load (digit span). The second study showed that when participants fail to retrieve a target event, they respond with a memory that is higher up the hierarchy. The third study showed that memory is more generic only when participants use low imageable cues under cognitive load. The final two experiments showed that experimental manipulation of memory specificity affects problem solving (MEPS performance). The data are consistent with Conway and Pleydell‐Pearce's hierarchical retrieval model of autobiographical memory, and suggest that overgeneral memory in nonclinical participants is associated with reduced executive capacity only when retrieval is “top‐down” (generative).
Studied autobiographical memory in 20 patients (mean age 45.8 yrs) who had experienced a major depressive episode and 20 controls matched for age, sex, and instructional level. Ss were administered the Autobiographical Memory Test, which consists of presenting positive and negative cue words to patients, and asking them to retrieve specific personal memories in response to each cue in under 60 sec. Results are in agreement with those obtained by J. M. Williams and J. Scott (see record
1989-19259-001): the number of specific memories recalled was lower for the depressive Ss than the controls, especially in response to positive cues. From a clinical point of view, data suggest that by increasing the number of specific memories of positive valence, it is possible to improve the state of depressive patients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Recent commentaries have suggested that women with postnatal depression (PND) experience negatively biased evaluations of their parental abilities and performance. This study investigated the differential accessibility of positive and negative memories in women with PND. Thirteen PND and 13 nondepressed mothers were administered the Autobiographical Memory Test. PND participants retrieved fewer specific memories, and retrieved them more slowly, than controls. PND participants retrieved more negative, and fewer positive, memories with a parental theme than controls. Severity of PND was significantly correlated with deficits in accessing specific memories. Findings are discussed in terms of the application of cognitive therapies to women with PND.
Overgeneral autobiographical memory (OGM) is a robust phenomenon in depression, but the extent to which OGM predicts the course of depression is not well-established. This meta-analysis synthesized data from 15 studies to examine the degree to which OGM 1) correlates with depressive symptoms at follow-up, and 2) predicts depressive symptoms at follow-up over and above initial depressive symptoms. Although the effects are small, specific and categoric/overgeneral memories generated during the Autobiographical Memory Test significantly predicted the course of depression. Fewer specific memories and more categoric/overgeneral memories were associated with higher follow-up depressive symptoms, and predicted higher follow-up symptoms over and above initial symptoms. Potential moderators were also examined. The age and clinical depression status of participants, as well as the length of follow-up between the two depressive symptom assessments, significantly moderated the predictive relationship between OGM and the course of depression. The predictive relationship between specific memories and follow-up depressive symptoms became greater with increasing age and a shorter length of follow-up, and the predictive relationship was stronger for participants with clinical depression diagnoses than for nonclinical participants. These findings highlight OGM as a predictor of the course of depression, and future studies should investigate the mechanisms underlying this relationship.
Depression is a disorder of impaired emotion regulation. Consequently, examining individual differences in the habitual use of emotion regulation strategies has considerable potential to inform models of this debilitating disorder. The aim of the current study was to identify cognitive processes that may be associated with the use of emotion regulation strategies and to elucidate their relation to depression. Depression has been found to be associated with difficulties in cognitive control and, more specifically, with difficulties inhibiting the processing of negative material. We used a negative affective priming task to assess the relations among inhibition and individual differences in the habitual use of rumination, reappraisal, and expressive suppression in clinically depressed, formerly depressed, and never-depressed participants. We found that depressed participants exhibited the predicted lack of inhibition when processing negative material. Moreover, within the group of depressed participants, reduced inhibition of negative material was associated with greater rumination. Across the entire sample, reduced inhibition of negative material was related to less use of reappraisal and more use of expressive suppression. Finally, within the formerly depressed group, less use of reappraisal, more use of rumination, and greater expressive suppression were related to higher levels of depressive symptoms. These findings suggest that individual differences in the use of emotion regulation strategies play an important role in depression, and that deficits in cognitive control are related to the use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies in this disorder.
Cognitive theories of depression posit that people's thoughts, inferences, attitudes, and interpretations, and the way in which they attend to and recall information, can increase their risk for depression. Three mechanisms have been implicated in the relation between biased cognitive processing and the dysregulation of emotion in depression: inhibitory processes and deficits in working memory, ruminative responses to negative mood states and negative life events, and the inability to use positive and rewarding stimuli to regulate negative mood. In this review, we present a contemporary characterization of depressive cognition and discuss how different cognitive processes are related not only to each other, but also to emotion dysregulation, the hallmark feature of depression. We conclude that depression is characterized by increased elaboration of negative information, by difficulties disengaging from negative material, and by deficits in cognitive control when processing negative information. We discuss treatment implications of these conclusions and argue that the study of cognitive aspects of depression must be broadened by investigating neural and genetic factors that are related to cognitive dysfunction in this disorder. Such integrative investigations should help us gain a more comprehensive understanding of how cognitive and biological factors interact to affect the onset, maintenance, and course of depression.
I propose that the ways people respond to their own symptoms of depression influence the duration of these symptoms. People who engage in ruminative responses to depression, focusing on their symptoms and the possible causes and consequences of their symptoms, will show longer depressions than people who take action to distract themselves from their symptoms. Ruminative responses prolong depression because they allow the depressed mood to negatively bias thinking and interfere with instrumental behavior and problem-solving. Laboratory and field studies directly testing this theory have supported its predictions. I discuss how response styles can explain the greater likelihood of depression in women than men. Then I intergrate this response styles theory with studies of coping with discrete events. The response styles theory is compared to other theories of the duration of depression. Finally, I suggest what may help a depressed person to stop engaging in ruminative responses and how response styles for depression may develop.
Synopsis
Recent research has shown that suicidal patients are not only biased in the speed with which they can remember positive and negative events from their past, but that they also find it more difficult to be specific in their memories. That is, they tend to recall sequences of events, or time periods, rather than single episodes. This tendency has been found to be more evident with positive than with negative events. This paper examines whether the same phenomenon can be observed in patients with a diagnosis of primary Major Depressive Disorder. Twenty depressed patients and twenty matched controls were presented with positive and negative cue words and asked to retrieve specific personal memories. Results showed that depressives (unlike controls) took longer to respond to positive than to negative cues. In addition, the depressed patients were less specific in their memories, especially in response to positive cues. These results are explained within a ‘descriptions’ theory of autobiographical memory, and the remedial implications are discussed.
This article provides a critical review of the empirical literature on the role of depression and elation in biasing mnemonic processing. Two classes of effects—state dependence and mood congruence—are examined. The latter, which involves the enhanced encoding and/or retrieval of material the affective valence of which is congruent with ongoing mood, is the more extensively researched of the two and is thus the focus of much of the present review. Though the support for claims of such a phenomenon is impressive in its size, consistency, and diversity, a number of questions remain. These include whether such effects are linked to mood states per se, and the possible role that such effects may play in the development of persistent depression.
Mood-memory phenomena have been studied using laboratory mood induction procedures with nondepressed subjects and with clinically depressed individuals. The present study examined both hedonic and nonhedonic aspects of autobiographical memory in people who had recently attempted suicide by overdose. Attempted suicide subjects, who were required to retrieve specific personal memories to positive or negative cue words, showed biased retrieval when their performance was compared with that of control groups, but the bias was wholly due to delayed retrieval of positive memories rather than speeded retrieval of negative memories. At least part of this effect was due to inappropriate retrieval strategies that yielded general rather than specific memories in the overdose group and have implications for associative network models of emotional memory.
The results of two experiments examining the effects of depressed mood on recall of target words and recall of descriptor words are reported. Descriptors were either negatively valenced or neutral and were not related semantically to target adjectives. There was no overall difference in the recall of targets by naturally depressed and nondepressed subjects. There was a mood x descriptor interaction on target recall, and depressed subjects recalled more negative descriptors than did nondepressed subjects. In contrast, when a depressed mood was induced through a Velten Mood Induction Procedure, induced-depressed subjects recalled fewer target words than did nondepressed subjects, and there was no differential recall of descriptor words by induced-depressed and nondepressed subjects. The results of these experiments indicate clear differences in the recall patterns of naturally depressed and induced-depressed subjects in a single cognitive task.
Depressed patients frequently exhibit deficiencies in social problem solving (SPS). A possible cause of this deficit is an impairment in patients' ability to retrieve specific autobiographical memories. A clinically depressed group and a hospital control group performed the Means-End Problem-Solving (MEPS; J. J. Platt & G. Spivack, 1975a) task, during which they were required to attend to the memories retrieved during solution generation. Memories were categorized according to whether they were specific, categoric, or extended and whether the valence of the memories was positive or negative. Results support the general hypothesis that SPS skill is a function of autobiographical memory retrieval as measured by a cuing task and by the types of memories retrieved during the MEPS. However, the dysfunctional nature of categoric memories in SPS, rather than the importance of specific memories, was highlighted in the depressed group. Valence proved to be an unimportant variable in SPS ability. The cyclical links among autobiographical memory retrieval, SPS skills, and depression are discussed.
The Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I.) is a short structured diagnostic interview, developed jointly by psychiatrists and clinicians in the United States and Europe, for DSM-IV and ICD-10 psychiatric disorders. With an administration time of approximately 15 minutes, it was designed to meet the need for a short but accurate structured psychiatric interview for multicenter clinical trials and epidemiology studies and to be used as a first step in outcome tracking in nonresearch clinical settings. The authors describe the development of the M.I.N.I. and its family of interviews: the M.I.N.I.-Screen, the M.I.N.I.-Plus, and the M.I.N.I.-Kid. They report on validation of the M.I.N.I. in relation to the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R, Patient Version, the Composite International Diagnostic Interview, and expert professional opinion, and they comment on potential applications for this interview.
We examine the proposal that social problem-solving in depression may be improved with the retrieval of specific autobiographical memories.
Social problem-solving was assessed with the Means-End Problem-Solving task (MEPS; Platt & Spivack, 1975a). Depressed and non-depressed participants were required either to retrieve a specific memory prior to generating a MEPS solution (primed condition) or to report on the memories retrieved during MEPS performance after giving their MEPS solution (non-primed condition). Participants also judged whether the memories retrieved had been helpful or unhelpful for the process of solution generation.
In both depressed and non-depressed individuals, priming increased specific memory retrieval but did not improve MEPS performance. An interaction between depression and priming revealed that priming increased the retrieval of helpful memories in the depressed sample.
Specificity is not, in itself, a sufficient retrieval aim for successful social problem-solving. However specific memory priming may be beneficial in depression because it facilitates the recognition of memories which are helpful for problem-solving.
Many Asian-Americans are unfamiliar with depression and its treatment. When depressed, they generally seek treatment from their primary care physicians and complain about their physical symptoms, resulting in under-recognition and under-treatment of depression. This study evaluates the effectiveness of the Chinese version of the Beck Depression Inventory (CBDI) for screening depression among Chinese-Americans in primary care. A total of 503 Chinese-Americans in the primary care clinic of a community health center were administered the CBDI for depression screening. Patients who screened positive (CBDI > or = 16) were interviewed by a psychiatrist using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R, patient version (SCID-I/P) for confirmation of the diagnosis. Patients who screened negative (CBDI < 16) were randomly selected to be interviewed using the depression module of the SCID-I/P. The results of the SCID-I/P interview were used as the standard for evaluating the sensitivity and specificity of the CBDI. A total of 815 Chinese-Americans in a primary care clinic were approached, and 503 completed the CBDI. Seventy-six (15%) screened positive (CBDI > or = 16), and the prevalence of major depression was 19.6% by using extrapolated results from SCID-I/P interviews. When administered by a native-speaking research assistant, the CBDI has good sensitivity (.79), specificity (.91), positive predictive value (.79), and negative predictive value (.91). Despite the commonly believed tendency to focus on physical symptoms rather than depressed mood, Chinese-Americans are able to report symptoms of depression in response to a questionnaire. The CBDI, when administered by research assistants, has good sensitivity and specificity in recognizing major depression in this population. Lack of interest among Chinese-American patients in using the CBDI as a self-rating instrument has limited its use for depression screening in primary care settings.
This study compares the effectiveness of the Chinese version of the Beck Depression Inventory (CBDI) and the Chinese Depression Inventory (CDI) in screening for depression among Chinese Americans.
Five hundred and three Chinese-Americans in primary care were administered the CBDI and the CDI for depression screening. The results were compared with standard semistructured interview.
With empirically determined cutoff scores of the CBDI (> or =13) and the CDI (>/=16), both instruments have good sensitivity (0.78) and excellent specificity (0.91 and 0.93, respectively). The correlation between the total scores of the two instruments was high (0.785, P < 0.01). The areas under the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve of the CBDI and the CDI were 0.94 and 0.95, respectively, and were not significantly different.
When administered by interviewers, the CBDI and the CDI have comparable effectiveness. Low participation among Chinese-Americans with self-report measures limits both scales as efficient depression screening instruments.
Older adults provided oral life histories in a semi-structured interview format. The transcribed narratives were coded for the presence of specific, one-moment-in-time episodes. Participants differed systematically in the degree to which their narratives were marked by descriptions of specific events. Women's memory styles were markedly more specific or episodic than were men's styles. Participants' ratings of the ways that they use memory in daily life suggest that women place a greater value on purposeful reminiscence than do men.
Studies of rumination suggest that self-focused attention is maladaptive and perpetuates depression. Conversely, self-focused attention can be adaptive, facilitating self-knowledge and the development of the alternative functional interpretations of negative thoughts and feelings on which cognitive therapy of depression depends. Increasing evidence suggests there are distinct varieties of self-focus, each with distinct functional properties. This study tested the prediction that in depressed patients brief inductions of analytical versus experiential self-focus would differentially affect overgeneral autobiographical memory, a phenomenon associated with poor clinical course. It was predicted that, relative to analytical self-focus, experiential self-focus would reduce overgeneral memory.
28 depressed patients either thought analytically about, or focused on their momentary experience of, identical symptom-focused induction items from [Cogn. Emotion 7 (1993) 561] rumination task. Participants completed the Autobiographical Memory Test [J. Abnorm. Psychol. 95 (1986) 144] before and after self-focus manipulations.
Experiential self-focus reduced overgeneral memory compared to analytical self-focus. Analytical and experiential self-focus did not differ in their effects on mood.
In the absence of a reference condition, only conclusions concerning the relative effects of analytical and experiential self-focus can be made.
Results (1) support the differentiation of self-focus into distinct modes of self-attention with distinct functional effects in depression; (2) provide further evidence for the modifiability of overgeneral memory; and (3) provide further evidence for the dissociation of overgeneral memory and depressed mood. Clinically, results support the usefulness of training recovered depressed patients in adaptive experiential forms of self-awareness, as in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy.
There are numerous indications that impaired inhibition of negative affective material could be an important cognitive component of depression. To study whether impaired inhibition of negative affect is a cognitive vulnerability factor explaining (recurrent) depression, inhibition of positive and negative affective stimuli was examined in hospitalized depressed patients, formerly depressed individuals and never-depressed controls.
To investigate inhibitory dysfunctions in the processing of emotional material, we used an affective modification of the negative priming task with pictures of sad and happy facial expressions.
Compared to never-depressed controls, depressed patients showed a specific failure to inhibit negative information, whereas inhibition function for positive material was unaffected. Surprisingly, formerly depressed individuals demonstrated impaired inhibition of negative and positive information.
Because of the significant correlations between depression and anxiety self-report scores, the observed reduced inhibitory effect toward negative material in the depression group cannot strictly be attributed as depression-specific.
In accordance with our hypothesis, strongly impaired inhibition of negative affect was found in depressed patients. Based on the present findings, we argue that impaired inhibition of negative affect could be an important construct in cognitive theories on depression linking cognitive biases to neuropsychological impairments in depression. The data in the formerly depressed individuals are less conclusive and several hypotheses are detailed that could explain how the absence of inhibition of affective information could relate to recurrent depression.
Two decades of research have shown that depressed patients experience significant difficulties retrieving specific autobiographical memories. Importantly, reduced autobiographical memory (AM) specificity is a known vulnerability factor for depression and is predictive of a more chronic course. One of the models that has been put forward to explain the origin of this reduced specificity is the affect-regulation model, which assumes that being less specific might help to prevent negative or painful emotions by recalling events in a less specific way. This avoidant memory style might have beneficial effects in the short run (less emotional impact of stressful events) but is detrimental in the long run. The affect-regulation model, and more in particular the beneficial short-term effect of reduced memory specificity, was investigated in a prospective study. Students were followed over a period of 9 weeks after they failed at their first exams at university. In line with the affect-regulation model, memory specificity predicted the course of symptoms that were experienced as a result of failing these exams. The less specific the student, the less durable the emotional distress over this 9-week period. The correlational nature of this study limits to some extent the conclusions that can be drawn. The results offer support for the affect-regulation account of reduced autobiographical memory specificity.
Two studies investigated the effects of rumination on the retrieval of autobiographical memories in high-depressed and low-depressed individuals. Experiment 1 administered either a rumination or distraction task prior to a cued autobiographical memory task. High-depressed participants recalled more overgeneral memories following rumination relative to distraction, whereas experimental inductions did not influence low-depressed participants. Experiment 2 administered either a positive or negative rumination task prior to a cued autobiographical memory task. Negatively valenced rumination led high-depressed participants to recall more overgeneral memories than positively valenced rumination; this effect was not observed in low-depressed participants. These findings accord with the proposal that rumination is a mediating mechanism in the retrieval of overgeneral memories, and extends this proposal by indicating that negatively valenced ruminative content is particularly instrumental in inducing overgeneral retrieval.
It is widely held that there are no differences in the symptom profile of male and female depression. Studies to date that have found differences have used different methodologies and had inconsistent findings. Here we compare the clinical profile of major depression for men and women from a sample of almost 600 well-characterized individuals with recurrent major depressive disorder (MDD).
Subjects were recruited as part of a large genetic-epidemiological study of MDD. Clinical assessments included semi-structured interviews and case-note review. Clinical profiles during 'worst ever' (WE) depressive episode were scored using the OPCRIT checklist. Profiles for 199 males were compared to 399 females.
Females with depression tended to have an earlier age-at-onset (p<0.0001), exhibited more frequent depressive episodes (p<0.005), had a greater number of depressive symptoms (p<0.001), and reported much higher rates of atypical depressive features (p<0.007) during their WE episode of depression. Logistic regression analysis identified that earlier age-at-onset of depression, excessive self-reproach and diminished libido were the best predictors of female depression.
Retrospective recall by subjects of depressive symptoms, which may be prone to recall bias.
There are differences in the clinical course and symptom profile of male and female depression. Further study is required to identify the biological correlates of these differences and to characterize their clinical importance.
This study was designed to assess the effects of irrelevant emotional material on the ability to update the contents of working memory in depression. For each trial, participants were required to memorize 2 lists of emotional words and subsequently to ignore 1 of the lists. The impact of irrelevant emotional material on the ability to update the contents of working memory was indexed by response latencies on a recognition task in which the participants decided whether or not a probe was a member of the relevant list. The authors compared response latencies to probes from the irrelevant list to response latencies to novel probes of the same valence (intrusion effect). The results indicate that, compared to control participants in both neutral and sad mood states, depressed participants showed greater intrusion effects when presented with negative words. In an important finding, intrusion effects for negative words were correlated with self-reported rumination. These findings indicate that depression is associated with difficulties removing irrelevant negative material from working memory. Results also indicate that the increased interference from irrelevant negative material is associated with rumination.
Research on cognitive models of depression has identified negative cognitive styles and rumination as risk factors for depression. The present study examined the hypothesis that rumination mediates the effect of negative cognitive styles on depression. Specifically, we evaluated the differential effects of two aspects of rumination, characterized by brooding and reflection, on the relationship between negative cognitive styles and level of depressive symptoms. A total of 115 college students and 38 patients suffering from depressive disorders completed a battery of questionnaires measuring levels of depressive symptoms, brooding, reflection, and negative cognitive styles. The results support the notion that there exist two distinct dimensions of rumination and that, of the two, it is brooding and not reflection that mediates the relationship between negative cognitive styles and depression and contributes to its negative outcomes.
- Loma Prieta Earthquake
Loma Prieta earthquake. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol
61(1), 115-121 (1991).
Autobiographical memory in patients with chronic pain and depression
- X H Liu
- S Q Yao
- W F Zhao
Liu XH, Yao SQ, Zhao WF, et al.
Autobiographical memory in patients with
chronic pain and depression. Chinese. J. Clin
.Psychol 18(2), 196-201 (2014).