Memory Bias in Recovered Clinical Depressives

Abstract

Memory bias for negative versus positive adjectives was investigated in 11 recovered primary unipolar depressives, 12 non-psychiatric controls and 9 current depressives. Adjectives were presented in an intentional memory task, in either a self- or unfamiliar other person-referent condition, where a yes/no judgement was made of whether each word described the respective person. Depressives showed a negative self-referent bias in recall while the recovered group and the controls recalled more positive than negative self-referent material. However, in the other person-referent condition, the recovered depressives recalled fewer positive than negative adjectives, a pattern not shown by the other groups, suggesting that retrieval operations in recovery are not completely normal. It is suggested that the negative self-referent recall bias is a function of both mood and more enduring cognitive structures. Implication of these results for vulnerability are discussed.