Social support from friends predicts changes in memory specificity following a stressful life event

Chiu, Christine H. M.; Boddez, Yannick; Raes, Filip; Barry, Tom J.

doi:10.1080/09658211.2019.1648687

Cited by 12 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Taken together, the findings of this investigation and others indicate that social support and autobiographical memory may operate bidirectionally. Although we show that the quality of the memories that we share may influence other people’s willingness to support and collaborate with us, social support has also been found to protect people from reductions in autobiographical memory specificity (Chiu et al, 2019; Raes et al, 2005) that might otherwise be expected following significant negative life events (Barry et al, 2018; Ono et al, 2016). As such, the more social support we receive following stressful events, the more specific our memory will be (Chiu et al, 2019) and the more specific we are, the more other people are likely to support us.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 60%

The sharing of autobiographical memories elicits social support.

Barry¹,

Boddez²,

Chiu³

et al. 2023

Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition

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We examine whether and how the autobiographical memories that we share can influence the social support that people offer us. Study 1 examined whether sharing specific (e.g., I was upset when reading my ex-partner’s email last Friday) versus nonspecific (e.g., I was upset) memories influences support giving. Studies 2 and 3 additionally examined the effects of episodic detail (i.e., who, what, where) and specificity on support. Participants offered more support to (hypothetical) profiles that shared specific, compared to nonspecific, memories, but these effects were less consistent than those for memory detail. Participants offered more support to profiles that shared memories that were high, compared to low, in detail. Findings were more consistent for the effects of memory detail on emotional support than instrumental support. These findings support the social function of autobiographical memory and suggest one pathway through which autobiographical memory may influence the help we receive.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 60%

The sharing of autobiographical memories elicits social support.

Barry¹,

Boddez²,

Chiu³

et al. 2023

Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition

Self Cite

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“…Yet, over the long-term, this avoidance of specific memories appears to be harmful: Two meta-analyses have suggested that the presence of overgeneral memories at one time-point can predict greater depressive symptoms at follow-up (Sumner et al, 2010;Hallford et al, 2021; see also Chiu et al, 2019). By not retrieving specific memories, individuals may deprive themselves of opportunities to reframe the experience and to update the memory.…”

Section: The Power Of Positive Memories For Ourselves and For Our Futurementioning

confidence: 99%

The power of negative and positive episodic memories

Williams

Ford

Kensinger

2022

Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci

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The power of episodic memories is that they bring a past moment into the present, providing opportunities for us to recall details of the experiences, reframe or update the memory, and use the retrieved information to guide our decisions. In these regards, negative and positive memories can be especially powerful: Life’s highs and lows are disproportionately represented in memory, and when they are retrieved, they often impact our current mood and thoughts and influence various forms of behavior. Research rooted in neuroscience and cognitive psychology has historically focused on memory for negative emotional content. Yet the study of autobiographical memories has highlighted the importance of positive emotional memories, and more recently, cognitive neuroscience methods have begun to clarify why positive memories may show powerful relations to mental wellbeing. Here, we review the models that have been proposed to explain why emotional memories are long-lasting (durable) and likely to be retrieved (accessible), describing how in overlapping—but distinctly separable—ways, positive and negative memories can be easier to retrieve, and more likely to influence behavior. We end by identifying potential implications of this literature for broader topics related to mental wellbeing, education, and workplace environments.

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“…The prompts required participants to generate a specific event they personally experienced in the past or might experience in the future. In accordance with the suggested guidelines from previous literature, responses were coded for specificity (1 = specific, 0 = categoric, extended, semantic associate, or no response, Chiu et al, 2019). The scoring of the SCEPT and SCEFT was carried out by one of the authors (SQ), blind to condition.…”

Section: Memory and Future Specificitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Autobiographical Memory and Future Thinking Specificity and Content in Chronic Pain

et al. 2021

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Chronic pain is associated with high levels of mental health issues and alterations in cognitive processing. Cognitive-behavioral models illustrate the role of memory alterations (e.g., autobiographical memory and future thinking) in the development and maintenance of chronic pain as well as in mental health disorders which frequently co-occur with chronic pain (e.g., anxiety and mood disorders). This study aims to expand our understanding of specific cognitive mechanisms underlying chronic pain which may in turn shed light on cognitive processes underlying pain-related psychological distress. Individuals (N = 84) who reported a history of chronic pain and individuals who reported no history of chronic pain (N = 102) were recruited from MTurk to complete an online survey including standardized measures of anxiety and depression and two sentence completion tasks that assessed autobiographical memory and future thinking specificity and content. Chi square analyses revealed that participants who endorsed experiencing chronic pain were significantly more likely to recall at least one painful and negative event and to imagine at least one anticipated painful event in their future. Two ANCOVAs were performed to examine the degree to which chronic pain endorsement influenced specificity in memory and future imagining. Individuals with a history of chronic pain and higher levels of depression symptom severity generated autobiographical memories with significantly less specificity; whereas, individuals with a history of chronic pain also generated future autobiographical events with significantly less specificity. In addition, individuals with a history of chronic pain were more likely to generate episodes related to pain when asked to recall the past or imagine the future. Further research is needed to improve our understanding of the etiology of autobiographical memory and future thinking specificity and content in the pathogenesis of mental health conditions in the context of chronic pain.

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Social support from friends predicts changes in memory specificity following a stressful life event

Cited by 12 publications

References 57 publications

The sharing of autobiographical memories elicits social support.

The sharing of autobiographical memories elicits social support.

The power of negative and positive episodic memories

Autobiographical Memory and Future Thinking Specificity and Content in Chronic Pain

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