Is overgeneral autobiographical memory an isolated memory phenomenon in major depression?
- 1 July 2006
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis Ltd in Memory
- Vol. 14 (5), 584-594
- https://doi.org/10.1080/09658210600624614
Abstract
The present study explored the relation between overgeneral autobiographical memory (AM) and other aspects of memory functioning in depression. A total of 26 patients with major depressive disorder completed a set of memory tasks measuring AM specificity (AMT; Williams & Broadbent, 1986), working memory, semantic memory, verbal learning, delayed verbal recall, recognition memory, and source memory. Reduced specificity of AM was related to poor working memory (central executive functioning) and poor source memory. The former finding conforms to the idea that the voluntary retrieval of specific autobiographical memories (AMs) involves central executive processes (e.g., Conway & Pleydell-Pearce, 2000 Conway, M. A. and Pleydell-Pearce, C. W. 2000. The construction of autobiographical memories in the self-memory system. Psychological Review, 107: 261–288. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar] ). The latter finding replicates and extends recent findings suggesting that overgeneral AM is part of a broader memory deficit in retrieving the specific details of the context in which information was acquired (Ramponi, Barnard, & Nimmo-Smith, 2004 Raes , F. , Hermans , D. , Williams , J. M. G. , Demyttenaere , K. , Sabbe , B. , Pieters , G . & Eelen , P. ( 2004 ). Reduced specificity of autobiographical memory: A mediator between rumination and ineffective social problem solving in major depression? Journal of affective disorders , 87 , 331 – 335 [Google Scholar] ). Furthermore, in line with Ramponi et al. ( 2004 Raes , F. , Hermans , D. , Williams , J. M. G. , Demyttenaere , K. , Sabbe , B. , Pieters , G . & Eelen , P. ( 2004 ). Reduced specificity of autobiographical memory: A mediator between rumination and ineffective social problem solving in major depression? Journal of affective disorders , 87 , 331 – 335 [Google Scholar] ), rumination was found to be related to both overgeneral AM and poor source memory.Keywords
This publication has 29 references indexed in Scilit:
- Memory and the self☆Journal of Memory and Language, 2005
- Rumination and overgeneral memory in depression: Effects of self-focus and analytic thinking.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 2001
- The construction of autobiographical memories in the self-memory system.Psychological Review, 2000
- Prospective Evaluation of Verbal Memory Performance after Cardiopulmonary Bypass SurgeryJournal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 1996
- Depression and the specificity of autobiographical memoryPublished by Cambridge University Press (CUP) ,1996
- Depression and memory impairment: A meta-analysis of the association, its pattern, and specificity.Psychological Bulletin, 1995
- Working memory in clinical depression: an experimental studyPsychological Medicine, 1993
- Responses to depression and their effects on the duration of depressive episodes.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1991
- Recall and recognition in depressives: Use of matched tasksBritish Journal of Clinical Psychology, 1985
- A RATING SCALE FOR DEPRESSIONJournal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 1960