4: Autobiographical Memory and Depression Flashcards
Define autobiographical memory.
Memory for personally experienced events.
What is a specific autobiographical memory?
Memory for an event that occurred at a particular time and place with lots of context and detail.
What is a categoric autobiographical memory?
Memory for a collection of events.
What is an extended autobiographical memory?
Memory for an event that lasts more than one day, helps us organise our past using significant time periods and has specific and categories memories embedded.
Why is memory important in understanding why people attempt suicide?
We have to wonder how people think about their past and how this effects what they think about their future.
What 3 factors are believed to be relevant to memory in people just prior to suicide?
Not being amenable to persuasion, not being to use coping strategies and only remembering failures and disappointments.
Briefly describe Williams and Broadbent’s methodology.
Recent suicide attempters, hospitalised control and healthy controls completed a mood questionnaire, hopeless scale, AM task (using pleasant and unpleasant cue words) and semantic memory tasks.
What were the results of Williams and Broadbent’s study?
OD group has significantly lower mood, higher hopelessness, slower retrieval of positive memories and more overgeneral memories (to positive cues in particular). No difference in latency for negative memories.
In what populations is greater overgeneral recall found?
Depression, suicide attempted, PTSD and eating disorders.
What are the 2 components of rumination?
Self focus and analytical/ evaluative cognitive style.
In their study using mood measures and cued categorical recall, what were the four types of attention manipulation used by Roberts et al.?
High self focus, high analysis (rumination + meaning), high SF, low A (rumination + sensations), low SF, high A (abstract + meaning) and low SF, low A (external).
What were the results of Roberts et al’s study?
Self focus altered mood, lower analysis lead to free categories memories, high analysis led to (non sig) more categories memories and distraction led to fewer categories memories.
What can modify overgeneral memory?
Thinking style: reducing analysis and rumination.
Why might people who have recovered from depression still have overgeneral memories?
Their mood may have improved but analytical style is unchanged.
What were the results of Raes et al’s study?
Trait rumination related to reduced autobiographical memory specificity after (but not before) a self-discrepancy induction with formerly depressed participants.
Define cognitive reactivity.
Reverting to depressive processing following a trigger.
What were the results of Goddard et al’s study?
Depressed participants performed worse on a means-end social problem solving task, retrieved mor categoric memories and these things were associated.
What treatment style did Williams et al. investigate?
Mindfulness based cognitive therapy: Aiming to increase awareness of the present using breathing.
What were the results of Williams et al’s study?
Depressed participants receiving MBCT showed a significantly reduced number of overgeneral memories and participants receive regular treatment showed no charge in specificity.
What were the results of Werner-Seidler et al’s study for non-depressed participants?
Sad mood was reduced and happy mood was increased following positive autobiographical memory recall regardless of discrepancy status.
What were the results of Werner-Seidler et al’s study for depressed participants?
Sad mood only was reduced following recall of non-discrepant memories only.
What is analytical thinking?
Trying to understand, explain and make sense of things.
Why might social problem solving be worse in people using a categorical retrieval style?
Specific mentors provide a rich database for generating solutions, and not having these can create a poor orientation towards the problem.
When is positive autobiographical retrieval helpful for improving mood in depression?
When memories are not discrepancy with current views of the self.
What aspect of autobiographical Emory could indicate vulnerability for developing depression?
Reduced specificity.