抑郁症患者的自传体记忆特征及其应用自传体记忆测验的元分析

研究目的在于探讨抑郁症患者自传体记忆的特征以及自传体记忆测验(the autobiographical memory test, AMT)在该领域的应用情况。通过文献检索, 搜集了18篇应用AMT作为测评工具的抑郁症自传体记忆研究, 抑郁症患者566人, 正常对照组457人。元分析研究发现, 和正常对照组比较, 抑郁症组的具体性记忆减少, 概括化记忆增多, 反应迟缓。目前对这种现象的解释主要有功能性回避模型、认知执行受损模型和沉思模型; 年龄、抑郁情绪以及AMT测试程序对测试结果有明显影响; 发表偏倚和敏感性分析显示存在发表偏倚, 但稳定性较好。AMT在抑郁症研究存在灵敏度不足等局限, 作者从AMT程序、研究设计等方面提出了改善建议。     

自传体记忆测验（AMT）中线索词的标准化评定

AMT（Autobiographical Memory Test）主要用于测量自传体记忆的概括性和具体性特征,已经被诸多研究者所采用,然而关于测验方法的具体问题鲜有研究,其中测验的关键部分线索词的选择和匹配更没有设计较严谨的量化研究。目的：分析与自传体记忆相关的线索词的多种维度,并通过统计指标的计算选取多种维度上最为匹配的线索词,形成中文版的AMT测验材料。方法：采用专家评定法,选取差异系数（cv）作为线索词的计算指标,并设计了差异系数的函数公式,把维度作为参数来计算情绪词的多维参数的函数值,最终作为线索词选择的依据。结果：依据每个词汇的差异系数函数值选择了三个维度上最为匹配的词汇,得到了以15个中文线索词为测验材料的AMT测验工具。     

自我概念对自传体记忆的影响：来自藏族和汉族青少年的比较研究证据

共有136名藏族和139名汉族青少年参与本实验。研究使用指导语启动方法控制自我概念,把被试随机分到独立取向、互依取向和控制组。之后使用线索词技术,对自传体记忆进行测量,考察自我概念启动对自传体记忆的影响。结果表明,自我概念启动对藏族和汉族青少年的自传体记忆内容描述的自主取向产生了启动效应。自我概念启动对于藏族被试自传体记忆社会事件报告的影响较弱。藏族青少年的自传体记忆与自我概念存在一定程度的分离现象,其自传体记忆的社会性可能更多受到个体的文化建构影响,一定意义上表明自我概念和自传体记忆的联系具有文化差异性。     

青少年感恩与创伤后应激障碍症状的关系:社会支持和心理弹性的中介作用

在"5.12"汶川地震后18个月时,采用青少年感恩量表、社会支持评定量表、心理弹性量表和创伤后应激障碍自评量表,对都江堰地区1439名经历地震的青少年进行问卷调查,考察感恩、社会支持、心理弹性与创伤后应激障碍(PTSD)症状的关系。结果表明:(1)感恩、社会支持和心理弹性均与PTSD症状呈显著的负相关,相关系数分别为-0.18,-0.17和-0.24;(2)感恩不仅直接影响PTSD症状,而且还通过社会支持和心理弹性的部分中介作用间接影响PTSD症状,中介效应占总效应的62%。     

沉思和分心对负情绪和自传体记忆的影响

探讨在诱发了抑郁、焦虑、悲伤等负性情绪后,沉思和分心对正常成人的情绪主观报告、生理变化和自传体记忆的作用。64名被试被随机分为两组,用故事和电影短片分别诱发了负性和中性（控制组）两种情绪状态。然后进行随机分组,分别进行分心和沉思的反应任务。测量四组被试的情绪主观报告、生理变化以及多种形式和性质的自传体记忆。结果表明：（1）沉思和分心对这些负情绪的调节作用不显著;（2）沉思引起更多的负性记忆,正性复合指数更小,自传体记忆的具体性更弱。结论：沉思导致更多负性记忆,维持了概括性记忆,更有可能加重已经激活的负情绪     

提问类型对自传体记忆概括化的影响

自传体记忆概括化程度较高是抑郁症产生与发展的重要影响因素, 探究降低自传体记忆概括化程度的方法以缓解抑郁症状、降低抑郁复发率是心理咨询与治疗中的一个重要研究课题。基于此, 本研究选取344名初中生进行实验, 实验1对比了问题状态组与正常状态组被试的自传体记忆概括化程度, 结果发现, 问题状态组被试的正性、负性自传体记忆得分均显著低于正常组, 两组在中性自传体记忆得分上差异不显著; 实验2对比了问题取向提问和解决取向提问对问题状态下人们自传体记忆概括化程度的影响, 结果发现, 解决取向提问组被试无论是在正性、负性自传体记忆得分上还是在中性自传体记忆得分上均显著高于问题取向提问组和控制组, 问题取向提问组和控制组在各类自传体记忆得分上差异均不显著; 实验3进一步考察了解决取向提问对问题状态下不同归因风格者自传体记忆概括化程度的影响, 结果发现, 内归因组被试的正性、负性自传体记忆得分均显著高于外归因组, 在中性自传体记忆得分上, 两组被试间差异不显著。结论:与抑郁症等精神障碍患者类似, 遭受一般心理困扰个体的自传体记忆概括化程度也较高; 相比问题取向提问, 解决取向提问能较好地降低一般心理困扰者的自传体记忆概括化程度; 对于一般心理困扰者而言, 解决取向提问对内归因者自传体记忆概括化程度改善效果优于外归因者。综上, 解决取向提问可以作为心理咨询师或治疗师降低个案自传体记忆概括化程度的一种有益尝试。     

不随意自传体记忆研究述评

不随意自传体记忆指,个人过去经历的事件在没有主动提取的情况下自动浮现于脑海的记忆现象。文章从不随意自传体记忆的研究方法、记忆特点和理论解释三个方面,分别介绍结构日记、词汇联想、栅栏任务和压力电影范式等研究方法;说明了不随意自传体记忆提取直接性、内容具体性和情绪影响性等特性,认为其原因是记忆内容的非整合性和显著联结;阐述了全局工作空间智能分布模型、双重表征理论和认知模型理论及其解释能力理论与不足。最后指出未来研究应关注特殊性质的解释、记忆结构整合和记忆的功能探究。     

自传体记忆中的时间组织

自传体记忆是指个体在日常生活中对自身经历事件的记忆,具有不随意性的特点。它既不同于是Ｔｕｌｖ－ｉｎｇ的情景记忆（ｅｐｉｓｏｄｉｃｍｅｍｏｒｙ）,也不同于偶然记忆（ｌｕｃｉｄｅｎｔａｌｍｅｍｏｒｙ）。时间维度通常被认为是自传体记忆组织的基本维度．个体所经历事件和行为的时间序列提供了一种记忆的自然顺序,也就是说在自传体记忆中保着类似年月顺序的时间结构。日常经验中,前、后或者同时发生的事件,在记忆提取或遗忘的过程中也常常表现为相同的时间序列。１传统时间记忆理论对自传体记忆的解释人们是如何判定一个事件是…     

童年期创伤对大学生抑郁的影响:早期适应不良图式和负性生活事件的作用

目的:考察早期适应不良图式、负性生活事件在童年期创伤与大学生抑郁间的影响机制。方法:采用童年期创伤问卷、Young图式问卷短版中文修订版、青少年生活事件量表及90项症状自评量表对1423名大学生进行调查,结果表明:(1)童年期创伤既可以直接正向预测大学生抑郁,也可以通过早期适应不良图式中的分离和拒绝、自主性及能力受损两大图式类别间接地正向预测大学生抑郁;(2)负性生活事件调节了早期适应不良图式在童年期创伤与抑郁间的中介作用     

自传体记忆的情绪对其相关信息内隐提取的影响

本研究主要考察自传体记忆本身的情绪是否影响该记忆相关信息的内隐提取过程。取大学生15人完成实验, 实验分为两部分：记忆提取和词汇判断。首先在记忆提取阶段, 要求被试根据词对(形容词-中性名词)提取积极、消极和中性情绪色彩的自传体记忆事件。接着在词汇判断任务中, 要求被试对包含提取过记忆的中性名词的词语进行词和非词的判断, 并且记录相应的脑电波。结果发现：(1)被试按要求成功提取了积极、消极和中性三类自传体记忆事件。词汇判断任务中, 内隐提取三类自传体记忆信息的反应时和正确率均无显著差异。(2)相比于积极、中性自传体记忆信息, 消极自传体记忆信息提取的过程中的ERP波幅更大, 更偏向于正向。这表明自传体记忆信息的内隐提取受到记忆本身情绪的影响, 消极自传体记忆信息提取需要付出更多资源。     

Reduced autobiographical memory specificity and posttraumatic stress: exploring the contributions of impaired executive control and affect regulation

Reduced specificity of autobiographical memories retrieved to word cues on the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT) is associated with increased posttraumatic stress in traumatized samples. Theoretical debates concerning the dominant influences on this effect have focused on affect regulation, whereby specific personal information is avoided more by those experiencing greater distress, versus compromised executive control, whereby increased distress is associated with an inability to set aside inappropriately general responses on the AMT. The present study compared these 2 views in a correlational design using a reversed version of the AMT (the AMT-R) for which trauma-exposed participants (N=36) had to generate general memories from the past and avoid specific memories. An emphasis on the role of affect regulation would predict that distress would be associated with reduced specificity (as in the standard AMT), whereas emphasis on the role of executive control would predict that this relationship would be reversed. The data supported the affect regulation account, with greater posttraumatic stress being associated with reduced memory specificity.     

An “alternating instructions” version of the Autobiographical Memory Test for assessing autobiographical memory specificity in non-clinical populations

There is limited research regarding how executive processes contribute to key cognitive deficits in depression, particularly impoverished retrieval of autobiographical memory. This study tested a novel version of the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT), the “Alternating Instructions” AMT (AMT-AI), to determine how participants could flexibly retrieve specific and categoric autobiographical memories. The AMT-AI consisted of a standard AMT (AMT-S), a categoric version of the AMT (AMT-R), and a section of alternating instructions (AI) in which the rules required the participant to alternate between retrieval of categoric and specific memories. A total of 49 university students completed the AMT-AI, and self-report measures of depressive symptomatology and ruminative thinking. Results showed that the mean proportion of specific memories recalled on the AMT-AI was significantly lower than on the AMT-S. Also, reduced memory specificity on the AMT-AI, but not the AMT-S, was significantly negatively correlated with increased scores on measures of depressive symptomatology and ruminative thinking. Collectively the data suggested that the AMT-AI, relative to the traditional AMT, may be more sensitive to memory specificity in non-clinical populations. Future research is warranted to further determine the psychometric properties and utility of the AMT-AI.     

Specificity of episodic and semantic aspects of autobiographical memory in relation to symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Two studies examined the relationship between the ability to access specific autobiographical material in memory and presence/symptoms of posttraumatic stress. In Study 1, a sample of refugees with a diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) completed the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT) in which they had to generate specific episodic autobiographical memories in response to emotion-related cue words. Results showed that reduced specificity of memories on the AMT was associated with an increased frequency of trauma-related flashbacks but with reduced use of effortful avoidance to deal with trauma-related intrusions in the day-to-day. Study 2 examined retrieval of semantic autobiographical information from previous lifetime periods in groups of cancer survivors with posttraumatic stress and healthy controls. The cancer survivors were able to generate fewer specific semantic details about the personal past compared to the controls. The more symptomatic survivors showed the greatest memory impairment. The data from both studies are discussed in terms of compromised access to specific autobiographical material in distressed trauma survivors reflecting a process of affect regulation.     

Levels of specificity of autobiographical memories and of biographical memories of the deceased in bereaved individuals with and without complicated grief

Traumatized individuals experiencing posttraumatic stress have difficulty retrieving specific autobiographical memories to cue words on the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT; J. M. G. Williams & K. Broadbent, 1986). This may represent a generalized, functional avoidance of the personal past. However, such individuals also often report specific intrusive memories of their trauma in the day-to-day. This raises the possibility that memories tied to the source of the person's distress are immune to this putative avoidance process. This was investigated in bereaved individuals with complicated grief (CG) who reported intrusive, specific memories from the life of their deceased loved one, and matched bereaved controls without CG. Participants performed the AMT and two Biographical Memory Tests (BMTs), cueing memories from the life of the deceased (BMT-Deceased) and from a living significant other (BMT-Living). To negative word cues, the CG group showed reduced specificity for the AMT and BMT-Living, relative to controls, but this effect was reversed on the BMT-Deceased. These data support the proposal that memories tied to the source of an individual's distress are immune to the processes that underlie the standard reduced specificity effect.     

The role of executive function in autobiographical memory retrieval: does the type of cue word matter?

ABSTRACT

Autobiographical memories are memories for personally experienced life events. Previous research has revealed individual differences in the ability to recall specific memories that happened at a particular time and place. Some studies suggest such differences can be attributed to the varying capacity of executive function. However, little is known regarding which specific executive function skills predict autobiographical memory specificity. Participants were asked to complete multiple measures of executive function as well as an autobiographical memory task in which they were asked to recall a specific personal memory connected to concrete and abstract cue words. We hypothesised that executive function will be positively related to autobiographical memory specificity and that this relation will be moderated by the cue word type. The results revealed that individuals with higher executive function skills, specifically, higher inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility, recalled significantly more specific memories than those with lower executive function skills; however, no significant interaction between executive function ability and cue word type was found.     

Autobiographical Memory in Patients with Tinnitus

Studies on psychiatric patients have found that their memories of the past are often unspecific and overgeneral, but the extent to which this is the case for patients with somatic problems has so far only been examined in patients with chronic pain and in patients with diabetes. The present study investigated autobiographical memories in 19 tinnitus patients and 19 controls without tinnitus. Participants were administered the autobiographical memory test (AMT), the Controlled word association test, and self-report measures of depression, anxiety, and tinnitus distress. Compared to control participants, tinnitus patients had difficulty retrieving specific memories and showed longer retrieval latencies. Additionally, tinnitus patients had fewer specific memories to positive cue words. While AMT responses were associated with depression scores, the difference between controls and patients remained significant for positive cue words after controlling for depression scores. Results suggest that cognitive components should be an integral element of the psychological management of tinnitus. The use in future studies of experimental methods such as AMT in health psychology is encouraged.     

Reduced specificity of emotional autobiographical memories following self-regulation depletion

The present study used a Color Stroop task, involving naming the ink colors of incongruous color words, to deplete self-regulation resources prior to retrieving a series of autobiographical memories to emotional and neutral cue words--the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT). Control participants either read color words written in black ink or performed no task prior to the AMT. Difficulty accessing specific memories on the AMT has been shown to index key aspects of the onset and maintenance of depression and other emotional disorders. Our hypothesis that depleted participants would retrieve fewer specific memories to cues on the AMT relative to controls was supported, even when levels of depressed and anxious mood, an index of clinical depression, posttraumatic stress, and verbal intelligence were covaried. The results indicate that self-regulation depletion via a neutral, unrelated task can impact on emotion-related autobiographical memory processes that have been shown to be dysfunctional in emotionally disordered populations.     

Effect of self-discrepancy on specificity of autobiographical memory retrieval

Research using a cue word paradigm has consistently shown that depression, in both adults and adolescents, is associated with difficulties in retrieving specific autobiographical memories. Inspired by previous work stating that depressed feelings are related to a perceived discrepancy between attributes of the actual and the ideal self, the present study aimed to investigate the hypothesis that cues bringing discrepancies between the actual and ideal selves to the foreground might promote or facilitate the recall of overgeneral (instead of specific) autobiographical memories. In two studies adolescents provided autobiographical memories in response to 10 high-discrepant and 10 low-discrepant words. As predicted, results in both studies showed an effect of cue word discrepancy on the specificity of autobiographical memories such that participants retrieved a smaller proportion of specific and a greater proportion of overgeneral memories in response to high-discrepant words as compared to low-discrepant words. The findings are discussed in terms of the self-memory system (SMS) as a conceptual framework of autobiographical memory (Conway & Pleydell-Pearce, 2000).     

Specificity and detail in autobiographical memory: Same or different constructs?

Research on autobiographical memory has focused on whether memories are coded as specific (i.e., describe a single event that happened at a particular time and place). Although some theory and research suggests that the amount of detail in autobiographical memories reflects a similar underlying construct as memory specificity, past research has not investigated whether these variables converge. Therefore, the present study compared the proportion of specific memories and the amount of detail embedded in memory responses to cue words. Results demonstrated that memory detail and proportion of specific memories were not correlated with each other and showed different patterns of association with other conceptually relevant variables. When responses to neutral cue words were examined in multiple linear and logistic regression analyses, the proportion of specific memories uniquely predicted less depressive symptoms, low emotional avoidance, lower emotion reactivity, better executive control and lower rumination, whereas the amount of memory detail uniquely predicted the presence of depression diagnosis, as well as greater depressive symptoms, subjective stress, emotion reactivity and rumination. Findings suggest that the ability to retrieve specific memories and the tendency to retrieve detailed personal memories reflect different constructs that have different implications in the development of emotional distress.     

Autobiographical Memory Specificity in Patients with Tinnitus Versus Patients with Depression and Normal Controls

Several studies show that patients with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder respond with fewer specific autobiographical memories in a cued memory task (i.e. the autobiographical memory test; AMT) compared to healthy controls. One previous study found this phenomenon among tinnitus patients as well (Andersson, Ingerholt, & Jansson, 2003). The aim of this study was to replicate the previous study with an additional control group of depressed patients and memory errors as measured with the AMT as an additional outcome. We included 20 normal hearing tinnitus patients, 20 healthy controls and 20 persons diagnosed with clinical depression. The AMT was administered together with self-report measures of depression, anxiety and tinnitus distress. Both the tinnitus and depression groups differed from the healthy control group in that they reported fewer specific autobiographical memories. There were, however, differences between the tinnitus and depression groups in terms of the errors made on the AMT. The depression group had more overgeneral memories than the normal control group, whereas the tinnitus group did not differ from the control group on this memory error. The tinnitus group had more semantic associations and non-memories than the other two groups, suggesting that executive functioning may play a role for the tinnitus group when completing the AMT. Clinical and theoretical implications of the findings are discussed.