Autobiographical memory retrieval and appraisal in social anxiety disorder

Abstract

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.

Social anxiety is associated with impaired memory for imagined social events with positive outcomes

“…Though the literature on episodic memory biases in SA is characterised by varied methodological approaches (Morgan, 2010;Zlomuzica et al, 2014), some studies have found that high SA individuals exhibit enhanced memory for social threat information, such as negative words or critical facial expressions (e.g., Lundh & Ӧst, 1996;Mansell & Clark, 1999). Similarly, studies of memory for autobiographical past events have demonstrated that higher trait SA is associated with elevated retrieval of threatening and highly emotional material (Krans, de Bree, & Bryant, 2013;Moscovitch et al, 2018;Wenzel & Cochran, 2006). Moscovitch et al (2018) found that while participants with SAD and healthy controls could retrieve autobiographical memories of both aversive and non-aversive social experiences with similar ease, SAD participants' memories of negative events contained greater episodic detail (i.e., more specific information about those particular negative experiences) than memories of negative events that were retrieved by controls; however, there were no such differences between groups for memories of non-aversive past events.…”

Coping with negative mental images in social anxiety disorder: Investigating the potential benefits of image morphing

“…Participants completed various measures at an initial session, including the SPIN and DASS. Additional measures that were not relevant to the present study were also administered in the initial session, as detailed in Moscovitch et al (2018). 1 One week after the initial session, participants attended the training session.…”

“…Negative images are often rooted in distressing autobiographical memories in which the themes of recollected events evoke central features of each specific disorder (Hirsch & Holmes, 2007; Holmes, Geddes, Colom, & Goodwin, 2008; Romano, Ma, Moscovitch, & Moscovitch, In Press). In SAD, it is common for individuals to experience distressing images of themselves appearing socially inept and undesirable and to associate the formation of such images with past experiences of perceived social failure or humiliation (Moscovitch, 2016; Moscovitch et al, 2018). Despite being excessively negative and distorted, these images of the self are believed by socially anxious individuals to represent accurate portrayals of how they appear to others (Hackmann, Clark, & McManus, 2000; Moscovitch, Gavric, Merrifield, Bielak, & Moscovitch, 2011; Stopa & Bryant, 2004).…”

“… 1. This earlier publication (Moscovitch et al, 2018) presented findings regarding the nature and impact of participants’ mental images related to specific autobiographical memories, focusing on the initial study session, and prior to condition assignment. Analyses presented here were conducted on a subset of that initial sample, comprised of participants who participated in all three study sessions.…”

Near-Death Experience Memories Include More Episodic Components Than Flashbulb Memories

“…While the former seem essential for high-fidelity representation of personally experienced events, the latter rather contribute to the coherence and continuity of self-knowledge and identity through time (Levine et al, 2002). To date, the AI scoring scheme has been used in a wide range of studies related to memory processes in aging (e.g., Levine et al, 2002), psychiatric conditions (e.g., Moscovitch et al, 2018), neurodegeneration (e.g., Bastin et al, 2013) or lesion cases (e.g., Steinvorth et al, 2005). However, no study has yet investigated the episodic and semantic composition of NDE verbal recollections as well as the comparison with those of flashbulb memories.…”