Rumination and overgeneral autobiographical memory.
Two studies investigated the effects of rumination on the retrieval of autobiographical memories in high-depressed and low-depressed individuals. Experiment 1 administered either a rumination or distraction task prior to a cued autobiographical memory task. High-depressed participants recalled more overgeneral memories following rumination relative to distraction, whereas experimental inductions did not influence low-depressed participants. Experiment 2 administered either a positive or negative rumination task prior to a cued autobiographical memory task. Negatively valenced rumination led high-depressed participants to recall more overgeneral memories than positively valenced rumination; this effect was not observed in low-depressed participants. These findings accord with the proposal that rumination is a mediating mechanism in the retrieval of overgeneral memories, and extends this proposal by indicating that negatively valenced ruminative content is particularly instrumental in inducing overgeneral retrieval.
Sutherland
Kylie
K
School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
Bryant
Richard A
RA
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003463:Cues; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005793:Generalization, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D011581:Psychological Tests; D013850:Thinking