title: Effects of age, dysphoria, and emotion-focusing on autobiographical memory specificity in children.
abstract: Overgeneral autobiographical memory (OGM) is strongly associated with depression in adults and appears to reflect a stable cognitive bias. However, it is not known whether this bias exists in children or what factors contribute to its development. We examined the roles of age, dysphoria, and a new variable, emotion-focusing (EF), on the production of specific autobiographical memory (AM) in children, using the standard Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT; Williams & Broadbent, 1986 ). Results show that older children are more specific than younger children, irrespective of cue valence. Dysphoria was linked to less specific retrieval of positive memories in children. A three-way interaction between age, valence, and dysphoria was also found, such that older dysphoric children demonstrated a difficulty in retrieving specific negative memories. In addition, emotion-focusing was associated with specific AM recall, especially to negative cues. Results are discussed with reference to the development of depressogenic biases.
authors.affiliation: a School of Psychology , University of St. Andrews , UK.|b Department of Psychology , University of Stirling , UK.|c Emotion Research Group, Medical Research Council , Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit , Cambridge , UK.
authors.forename: Ronan E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: O'Carroll
authors.affiliation: a School of Psychology , University of St. Andrews , UK.|b Department of Psychology , University of Stirling , UK.|c Emotion Research Group, Medical Research Council , Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit , Cambridge , UK.
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dalgleish
authors.affiliation: a School of Psychology , University of St. Andrews , UK.|b Department of Psychology , University of Stirling , UK.|c Emotion Research Group, Medical Research Council , Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit , Cambridge , UK.
authors.forename: Lyndsey E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Drummond
authors.affiliation: a School of Psychology , University of St. Andrews , UK.|b Department of Psychology , University of Stirling , UK.|c Emotion Research Group, Medical Research Council , Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit , Cambridge , UK.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dritschel
authors.affiliation: a School of Psychology , University of St. Andrews , UK.|b Department of Psychology , University of Stirling , UK.|c Emotion Research Group, Medical Research Council , Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit , Cambridge , UK.
authors.forename: Arlene
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Astell