The present study investigated the effects of self-focused attention style on autobiographical memory in the depressed. The exprerimental design was a 2(group: depressive, nondepresseve) X 4(self-focused attention style: experiential, analytical, refl...
The present study investigated the effects of self-focused attention style on autobiographical memory in the depressed. The exprerimental design was a 2(group: depressive, nondepresseve) X 4(self-focused attention style: experiential, analytical, reflective, distraction) X 3(cue: positive, negative, neutral) three-way mixed design. The groups and the self-focused attention styles were the between-subject variables and the cues were the within-subject variables. Participants were 121 university students, 15 male or female in each condition. Dependent measure was the change of overgeneral memory on autobiographical memory in the depressed.
The procedures of experiment are as follows. Participants completed the Autobiographical Memory Test(AMT) before and after self-focus attentional manipulations. They worte a specific personal memory for each of three positive, three negative, and three neutral cues. In each manipulation conditions, participants focused their attention on their experience, thought about the event and distracted their attention on others thinking about the most unpleasant or painful.
The results are as follows. First, in specific memory compared to overgeneral memory, the result of repeated measures ANOVA showed that overgeneral memory was more than specific memory in depressive group. Thus, this result supported hypothesis Ⅰ and previous studies which suggested that the depressed didn't find it easy to retrieve the sort of specific personal memories. Second, depressive group by self-focus interaction was not significant. Namely, analytical self-focus increased overgeneral memory and reflective self-focus and distraction decreased it, but experiential self-focus increased it. Therefore, they were not systematically significant. Thus, hypothesis Ⅱ-1, Ⅱ-2, Ⅱ-3. Ⅱ-4 were rejected. Third, in positive cues compared to negative cues, the result of repeated measures ANOVA showed that overgeneral memories to positive cues were higher proportion than to negative cues in depressive group, but they were not systematically significant. Therefore, hypothesis Ⅲ was rejected. Finally, limitations of this study and suggestions for the future study were discussed.