Does Overgeneralized Autobiographical Memory Facilitate or Inhibit Intrusive Images? Its Relation to Depressive Symptoms

Abstract

People with high levels of depressive symptoms experience overgeneralized autobiographical memory (OGM) in voluntary recall and intrusive images in involuntary recall. The present study examined the relationship between OGM and intrusive images and the influence of depressive symptoms on this relationship over 1 week. Fifty-three students completed selfreport questionnaires, autobiographical memory test, and the trauma film paradigm. Subsequently, they reported intrusive images from the trauma film in a diary for 1 week. Hierarchical multiple regression showed that individuals with higher levels of depressive symptoms experienced more intrusive images than did individuals with low depressive symptoms. An interaction effect between negative memory specificity and depressive symptoms revealed that number of intrusive images was related to high negative memory specificity (i.e. low OGM) in individuals with higher levels of depressive symptoms. These results support the functional avoidance strategy of OGM in analogue trauma stimuli, especially in individuals with higher depressive symptoms.

A brief life-purpose intervention reduces trauma-film anxiety and rumination.

“…The clip depicted a violent physical assault in which a skinhead shoots two African American men who were stealing his truck and then stomps on one man’s head whose open mouth was on a curb. This film has been previously used to examine trauma-related rumination (Matsumoto et al, 2017; Wessel et al, 2010).…”