Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Leuven, Belgium.
J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry. 2012 Dec;43(4):1002-7. doi: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2012.03.003. Epub 2012 Mar 29.
Reduced Autobiographical Memory Specificity (rAMS) is a hypothesized vulnerability factor for depression. Rumination is thought to be one of the processes underlying rAMS, but research has failed to show an association between trait rumination and rAMS in individuals who are not currently depressed (e.g., community samples, college samples, and formerly depressed samples). The present study tested whether a challenge procedure that induces a self-discrepancy focus can elicit an association between trait rumination and rAMS in formerly depressed participants.
Trait rumination was assessed via self-report. Measures of psychopathology and cognitive function, including depression, were assessed via self-report and interview. Autobiographical Memory Specificity (AMS) was evaluated before and after the induction of a self-discrepancy focus in formerly depressed participants.
Results showed that trait rumination was indeed negatively correlated with AMS after, but not before the induction. Moreover, high trait ruminating participants showed a decrease in AMS following the induction. In other words, memory specificity was reactive to the induction, but no such decrease was observed in low trait ruminating individuals.
This study is mostly of women. These results may not generalize well to men. Our experimental control was within-subjects, which, although powerful and economical, cannot rule out certain confounding processes including natural changes in self-discrepancy, or non-specific or unintended effects of the induction.
In order to detect rAMS in formerly depressed individuals or to observe associations between rAMS and trait measures of rumination, state ruminative processing needs to be activated. Results are discussed by framing rAMS as an example of cognitive reactivity, a general type of processing that is associated with depression.
自传体记忆特异性降低（rAMS）被认为是抑郁的一个潜在易患因素。反刍思维被认为是 rAMS 的潜在过程之一，但研究未能表明特质反刍与非抑郁个体（如社区样本、大学生样本和曾抑郁样本）的 rAMS 之间存在关联。本研究测试了一种诱发自我差异焦点的挑战程序是否能在曾抑郁的参与者中引起特质反刍与 rAMS 之间的关联。
特质反刍通过自我报告进行评估。通过自我报告和访谈评估心理病理学和认知功能的测量，包括抑郁。在曾抑郁的参与者中诱发自我差异焦点前后，评估自传体记忆特异性（AMS）。
结果表明，特质反刍在诱导后与 AMS 呈负相关，但在诱导前没有。此外，高特质反刍参与者在诱导后 AMS 下降。换句话说，记忆特异性对诱导有反应，但低特质反刍个体没有观察到这种下降。
本研究主要是女性。这些结果可能不适用于男性。我们的实验控制是在个体内进行的，虽然强大而经济，但不能排除某些混杂过程，包括自我差异的自然变化，或诱导的非特异性或非预期效应。
为了在曾抑郁的个体中检测到 rAMS，或观察 rAMS 与特质反刍测量之间的关联，需要激活状态反刍加工。通过将 rAMS 框定为认知反应性的一个例子来讨论结果，认知反应性是一种与抑郁相关的一般类型的加工。
