title: Role of anxiety and brooding in specificity of autobiographical recall.
abstract: Overgeneral schemas and lack of autobiographical memory (AM) specificity about our past experiences can predict mood disturbance. Rumination, functional avoidance and executive processes are the main explanatory variables of such overgenerality. However, in non-clinical samples, rumination predicts overgenerality most consistently after the induction of dysphoric mood. Anxiety also activates rumination. Furthermore, anxiety predicts memory performance and has effects on mood which are independent of the effects of rumination. So, what might be the role of anxiety in autobiographical memory performance? A sample of 210 voluntary participants reported measures of autobiographical memory, anxiety, rumination (brooding and reflection), functional avoidance and executive functions (semantic and phonetic verbal fluency task). Autobiographical performance (specificity) was negatively associated with brooding and age and positively with phonetic verbal fluency but not with functional avoidance and anxiety. However, anxiety and brooding were positively correlated even after controlling for depression scores. Moreover, using structural equation modeling, anxiety showed a significant indirect effect on autobiographical specificity through brooding rumination. These results suggest a possible association of anxiety with autobiographical recall through brooding rumination.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Castilla La Mancha, Spain. JorgeJavier.Ricarte@uclm.es.|Criminology and Applied Psychology Centre, Albacete, Spain. JorgeJavier.Ricarte@uclm.es.
authors.forename: Jorge Javier
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Ricarte
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Castilla La Mancha, Spain.|Criminology and Applied Psychology Centre, Albacete, Spain.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5567-8589
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ros
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Castilla La Mancha, Spain.|Criminology and Applied Psychology Centre, Albacete, Spain.
authors.forename: Jose Miguel
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Latorre
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Castilla La Mancha, Spain.
authors.forename: Maria Dolores
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Muñoz
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Castilla La Mancha, Spain.
authors.forename: Maria Jose
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Aguilar
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Castilla La Mancha, Spain.|Mental Health Service of Castilla La Mancha, Cuenca, Spain.
authors.forename: Jose Vicente
authors.initials: JV
authors.lastname: Hernandez
mesh_terms: D001007:Anxiety; D001008:Anxiety Disorders; D056344:Executive Function; D006801:Humans; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D011939:Mental Recall
keywords: Autobiographical memory; anxiety; mood; rumination