Reductions in Specific First Memories in Depression: Influences of Distraction, Referential Set and Cue Word Valence on First Memory Retrieval

This study
examined the association between depression and autobiographical memory
deficits. Sp
e
cifically,
it
evaluate
d
the impact of depression, complexity of a
distraction task,
self
-
or other
-
referential set and positive or negative cue
-
word valence on the retrieval of
specific
autobiographical memories
.
A sample of 24
depressed women and 24 matched
controls completed the Autobiographical Memory T
ask
(AMT)
before and after either a high
-
or low
-
complexity distraction task. Compared with the control group, the depressed group
retrieved fewer specific first memories and had longer retrieval latencies for these.
In the self
-
referential condition this
pattern was more pronounced than in the other
-
referential condition.
This suggests that depression
is
associated with a particular vulnerability in recalling specific
self
-
referential memories.
Distraction task complexity and cue
-
word valence did not
affect
AMT performance.