autobiographical memory Flashcards
AM and emotion (arousal and valence)
valence : positive events more easily accessed and recalled
more arousing = more memorable
Music and AM (Sheldon et al., 2017)
v. strong emotional cue impacting access to AM
e. g. advanced alzheimers = lose any ability to access AM info but music can help
play music - high/low arousal, positive/negative valance
play different clip and ask to recall the first memory that comes to mind
AMs accessed most quickly in response to positive and high arousal musical cues - associate with memories rated as being more social and energetic (relates to the function of AM being to maintain wellbeing)
AM and emotion - Williams and Broadbent (1986) study of suicide attempters
depression = more likely to recall negative events faster and in more detail, stop remembering the details of past
suicide attempters fail to remember details = overgeneralisation memories higher for pleasant than unpleasant
much longer to recall positive events and quicker to recall negative events from cue words
over general memory in affective disorders
- may be due to avoiding remembering previous pain
- consistent feature of MDD and other affective disorders
- when trauma is blocked out to prevent re-experiencing, can also block out positive = therapy needed to restore full sense of self which is linked to using memory in normal life
protective and detrimental
overgeneral AM and traumatic events
some exposure to trauma = rebound back with no prolonged emotional disturbance whereas others suffer PTSD where over generality effects can be seen
relationship between trauma an specificity of memory is moderated by other aspects e.g. severity, how prolonged and the ways in which people cope with it
= over general memory deficit can be a symptom for how traumatic an experience was for someone and how difficult they are finding it
how do events become traumatic
Janet, 1889
trauma is stored in somatic memory and expressed as changed in the biological stress response.
intense emotional reactions make events traumatic by interfering with the integration of the experience into existing memory schemes - events become dissociated from consciousness as stored as visceral sensations (anxiety) or visual images (flashbacks) - doesnt link up to the rest of our life = raw and vivid episodes with no control over
patients tent to react to reminders of the trauma with emergency responses relevant to the original threat
eye movement and visual imagery
treatment potential
reduced vividness and emotionality of visual imagery recollections with concurrent eye movements.
e.g. eye-movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR)
Therapy involves following an object/light moving slowly from left to right in the safe therapy environment and going through the traumatic event in your head. The eye movements activates both hemispheres to help integration of rogue traumatic memories within the rest of our memories, memory substrates and ourselves = reduce flashbacks
attachment and emotional memory
avoidant attachment = don’t pay attention to any stimuli related to attachment - find ideas of attachment threatening and anxiety relating
- this effects how things are remembered e.g. more difficult to recall emotional childhood experiences and less accurate memories with interpersonal loss
secure attachment = no prob with remembering
defensive exclusion
regulate negative affect by limiting attention to material that could result in attachment system activation
if potentially upsetting info is not processed the attachment system is less likely to become activated = preventing rejection and distress
Attachment and Emotional Memory study
examine the source and extent of avoidant memory deficits.
An operation-word span task with neutral/emotional (not att related) and attachment related words.
Attachment type has an effect on memory for attachment words, high avoidance = memory for att. words was equal to neutral words
Memory for emotional simulations
normally, past events prep for future and forgetting negative things is healthy. this should be the same for thinking about the future. Asked ppts what future events will look like in they mind = people tend to have more details about positive scenarios
details associated with negative simulations of future events are more difficult to come up with than positive/neutral
Fading Affect Bias
intensity of negative emotions associated with events fades quicker = becomes a more factual memory
replaced using many methods and populations = robust
linked to cognitive and social prosecutes = positive view of self and helps social disclosure
