Recalling positive self-defining memories in depression: The impact of processing mode

Abstract

Recalling positive memories is a powerful and effective way to improve mood. However, unlike never-depressed individuals, those with current or past depression do not benefit emotionally from positive memory recall. To examine whether rumination is involved in this difficulty, 80 participants (26 currently depressed, 29 recovered depressed, and 25 never depressed) were instructed to recall a positive self-defining memory while in a sad mood. They were then instructed to think about their memory, adopting either an abstract or concrete processing mode. Never-depressed and recovered depressed participants experienced improved mood after memory recall, regardless of processing mode. However, for depressed individuals neither an abstract nor a concrete processing mode produced emotional benefit. These findings suggest that a complex relationship exists among processing mode, memory type, and depressive status, and indicate that the way in which individuals process positive emotional material may have important consequences for treatment.

Keywords:

• Depression
• Autobiographical memory
• Processing mode
• Rumination

This study was supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award to Aliza Werner-Seidler, and also received some report from a National Health and Medical Research Council Grant (1004151) awarded to Michelle L. Moulds.

This study was supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award to Aliza Werner-Seidler, and also received some report from a National Health and Medical Research Council Grant (1004151) awarded to Michelle L. Moulds.

Notes

¹ Memories were classified as either achievement-related or of interpersonal events. Of the memories reported, 60% were of an achievement-based event and 40% were themed around an interpersonal event.

² For inter-rater reliability purposes, 10% of these interviews were audio-recorded and re-rated by an independent clinical psychologist blind to group membership. There was perfect agreement between the two assessors.

³ Happy mood ratings were examined as an additional mood variable of interest, and results indicated the inverse pattern to that of sad mood ratings: lower levels of happy mood ratings for the depressed group, compared to the remitted and never-depressed groups (which did not differ).

⁴ Again we repeated the analysis examining happy mood ratings as the dependant variable, and obtained the exact same pattern of means: a decrease in happiness for both recovered depressed and never-depressed groups, but no change in happiness for the depressed group.

⁵ To obtain an estimate of inter-rater reliability, an additional rater blind to group membership re-rated 10% of the memories. For both specificity and content there was perfect agreement between the two assessors.

⁶ An analysis with vantage perspective and memory positivity included as covariates was also conducted, which yielded an identical pattern of results. Unadjusted statistics are reported in the text.