Intact implicit and reduced explicit memory for negative self-related information in repressive coping

Abstract

Voluntary emotional memory control has recently been shown to involve prefrontal down-regulation of medial temporal lobe activity during memory retrieval. However, little is known about instances of uninstructed, naturally occurring forgetting. In the present study, we examined whether memory suppression extends to involuntary, uninstructed down-regulation of memory in individuals thought to be experts in forgetting negative memories-those with a repressive coping style. We contrasted explicit and implicit memory for negative information in repressor and nonrepressor groups and examined whether self-relevance is a moderating variable. To delineate the specificity of repressors' selective memory reductions, we contrasted encoding and retrieval of emotional words as a function of self-reference, subjective self-relevance, and explicitness of the memory d task in nonrepressors and repressors. Self-descriptiveness judgments, lexical decisions (implicit memory), and free recall (explicit memory) were investigated. Repressors had selectively lowered free recall only for negative, self-relevant information. Their implicit memory for the same information was unaffected. This pattern suggests that regulation of emotional memory in repressive individuals is a case of motivated forgetting, possibly sharing much of the neural underpinnings of voluntary memory suppression.

Self-Serving Episodic Memory Biases: Findings in the Repressive Coping Style

“…We did not expect repressor-specific alterations of implicit memory in the lexical decision task after the delay. As we reported previously (Fujiwara et al, 2008), priming for negative self-relevant information had been intact in repressors at immediate test, and we did not expect this to change after a delay.…”

“…Based on median splits of likeableness, we created two matched sets, each with 75 likeable and 75 non-likeable words (hereafter termed “positive” and “negative,” respectively). Sets were equated in word length (3–10 letters), statistical frequency, and meaningfulness (for details see Fujiwara et al, 2008). Half the participants in each experiment received set 1 or set 2 during the encoding task.…”

“…None of them were included in the experiment. Each trial had the following sequence: a fixation cross would appear for 1000 ms followed by a 150-ms presentation of the letter string, after which the participant had to respond (identical to Fujiwara et al, 2008). The dependent variable was response time.…”

“…For instance, the null findings of Brosschot et al (1997) may have been due to participants simply rating stimuli for pleasantness and threat, a task that can be performed with minimal reference to oneself. Along this line, Fujiwara et al (2008) also found no alterations in repressors’ recall or priming for negative information they had judged for valence. In contrast, within the same study, self-descriptiveness judgments critically mediated forgetting in repressors: non-repressors had better free-recall of negative self-descriptive words compared to negative non-self-descriptive words.…”

“…Thus, we compared here whether repressive coping style mediated free-recall of words previously judged as self-descriptive at an immediate test (conceptual replication of Fujiwara et al, 2008), and at a delayed test. First, we expected to replicate our previous result and predicted that all groups but repressors should show a recall advantage of negative self-descriptive over negative information that was not self-descriptive in immediate test (experiment 1).…”