Review: Does maladaptive repetitive thinking affect characteristics of mental time travel?

Abstract

We review studies examining the relationship between maladaptive repetitive thinking (RT) and the following characteristics of mental time travel (MTT): (1) emotional response (22 studies), (2) sensory reliving (3 studies), (3) field-observer perspective (4 studies) and (4) reduced specificity (29 studies). The results suggest that maladaptive RT is associated with increased emotional response to mentally travelling to negative events and with reduced specificity of past MTT. The results for sensory reliving and field-observer perspective were mixed. We discuss why maladaptive RT is associated with both increased emotional response and reduced specificity, which has been suggested to decrease emotional responses to MTT. We suggest that differences in the conceptualization of maladaptive RT and sampling clinical versus healthy participants may explain this apparently contradictory finding. Alternatively, maladaptive RT may be characterized by both increased emotional response to MTT and attempts at reducing the emotional response through reduced specificity. Finally, we offer suggestions for future research.

Keywords:

• rumination
• worry
• autobiographical memory
• specificity
• emotional response

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Danish Research Council for Independent Research: Humanities, as well as the Danish National Research Foundation (grant number DNRF93) for funding. Thanks to Lynn A. Watson, Peter Krøjgaard, and one anonymous reviewer for helpful comments and suggestions.