Department of Psychology and Centre for Mental Health Research and Treatment, University of Waterloo, Canada.
Department of Psychology and Centre for Mental Health Research and Treatment, University of Waterloo, Canada.
Behav Res Ther. 2018 Aug;107:106-116. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2018.06.008. Epub 2018 Jun 22.
Individuals with social anxiety disorder (SADs; n = 41) and healthy controls (HCs; n = 40) were administered the Waterloo Images and Memories Interview, in which they described mental images that they tend to experience in both anxiety-provoking and non-anxiety-provoking social situations. Participants then recalled, in as much detail as possible, specific autobiographical memories of salient aversive and non-aversive social experiences that they believed led to the formation of these images. Audio-recorded memory narratives were transcribed and coded based on the procedure of the Autobiographical Interview, which provides a precise measure of the degree of episodic detail contained within each memory. Participants also rated the subjective properties of their recalled memories. Results revealed that participants across the two groups retrieved equivalent rates of both aversive and non-aversive social memories. However, SAD participants' memories of aversive events contained significantly more episodic detail than those of HCs, suggesting that they may be more highly accessible. Moreover, participants with SAD appraised their memories of aversive experiences as more distressing and intrusive than HCs, and perceived them as having a significantly greater influence on their self-perception. In contrast, no group differences were observed for memories of non-aversive events. Findings have the potential to shed new light on autobiographical memory in SAD, with implications for psychotherapeutic intervention.
社交焦虑障碍（SAD）患者（n=41）和健康对照者（HCs；n=40）接受了滑铁卢图像和记忆访谈，他们在访谈中描述了自己在引起焦虑和非引起焦虑的社交情境中倾向于体验的心理意象。然后，参与者尽可能详细地回忆起导致这些意象形成的具体、有意义的、令人痛苦和非痛苦的社交经历的自传体记忆。根据自传体访谈的程序对音频记录的记忆叙述进行转录和编码，该程序为每个记忆中包含的情节细节程度提供了精确的衡量标准。参与者还对他们回忆的记忆的主观属性进行了评分。结果表明，两组参与者回忆的痛苦和非痛苦社交记忆的速度相当。然而，SAD 患者对痛苦事件的记忆包含的情节细节明显多于 HCs，这表明它们可能更容易被回忆起来。此外，SAD 参与者认为他们对痛苦经历的记忆比 HCs 更痛苦和侵入性更强，并且认为这些记忆对他们的自我认知有更大的影响。相比之下，对于非痛苦事件的记忆，没有观察到组间差异。这些发现有可能为 SAD 中的自传体记忆提供新的见解，并对心理治疗干预产生影响。
