Dissociative experience and mood-dependent memory

Amnesia is the main phenomenon in dissociative experiences. The present study investigated whether amnesia in participants with frequent dissociative experiences depended on state-dependent memory. Undergraduates scoring high (n=32) or low (n=32) on the Dissociative Experiences Scale Version-II (DES-II) participated in this experiment. Mood induction and a remember/know task were used in a typical mood-independent memory design. In the inconsistent mood state condition, participants in the high DES group showed decreased memory performance compared to the low DES group. These results were attributed to the recollection components of recognition and not to the familiarity component. Therefore we concluded that the normal population with highly frequent dissociative experiences showed strong state-dependent memory and had a memory bias in the recollection component of memory.