Cognitive--emotional distinctiveness: separating emotions from non-emotions in the representation of a stressful memory.

Current theories on autobiographical memory and recent neurological evidence suggest that emotional and non-emotional features of a memory may be retrieved by separate systems. To test this notion, 207 participants who had experienced the break-up of a significant romantic relationship in the last 12 months completed a Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) procedure in relation to the previous relationship. The resulting MDS model revealed two dimensions: a valence and an emotional/non-emotional dimension. Further, participants who associated a high level of distress with their relationship break-up perceived less dissimilarity between emotional and non-emotional features than participants who associated a low level of distress with their relationship break-up. Theoretical and methodological implications for stress and memory are discussed.