Autobiographical Memory Specificity and Detailedness and Their Association with Depression in Early Adolescence

Abstract

Previous research with adults has shown mixed findings regarding the correlation between specificity and detailedness within autobiographical memories, and their associations with depressive symptoms. However, minimal research has tested these links in adolescents, despite the importance of this developmental period. The present investigation examined these associations in a sample of young community adolescents (N = 768; Mage = 11.04) by replicating methodology of existing studies. Cued recall was measured using the Autobiographical Memory Test and responses were subsequently coded for specificity (whether the memory referred to an event that lasted less than 24 hours) and amount of detail (time, place, sensory-perceptual information, etc.). Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Patient Reported Outcomes Measure Information System (PROMIS) measure. Two linear mixed models showed that young adolescents who retrieved more detail recalled a greater number of specific memories and that specific memories included a greater amount of detail than non-specific memories. However, neither memory specificity nor detail were associated with depressive symptoms. Our findings suggest that, in a population of young adolescents, memory specificity and detail are distinct, but interrelated, constructs. Further longitudinal research should examine whether specificity and detail predict depressive symptoms differentially over the course of adolescence; possible mediators and moderators within this association should also be investigated.

Autobiographical memory and psychopathology: Is memory specificity as important as we make it seem?

“…The differences between Lam et al (2022) and Salmon et al (2021) may also be attributable to methodology. Lam et al (2022) used a similar cross‐sectional AMT‐design as Hallford, Ricarte, and Hermans (2021) whereas Salmon et al (2021) asked participants about a single turning point narrative within their longitudinal design. The unique features of the latter design offers valuable insights into developmental changes in the way that people recall and describe important autobiographical experiences.…”

“…Furthermore, there was only a weak and non‐significant association between the number of specific memories a person can retrieve and the number of semantic details in these and other memories. Subsequently, Lam et al (2022) replicated the finding of a correlation between specific memories and detail in an adolescent sample. Together, these findings conflict with those of Kyung et al (2016), suggesting that not only do people who tend to retrieve more specific memories also tend to retrieve more detailed memories, specific memories themselves may also be unique for being particularly rich in episodic detail.…”

“…Some of the studies presented here have also found supporting evidence for this with weak but significant negative correlation between the number of specific autobiographical memories that people can retrieve and the severity of their depression symptoms (Hallford, Barry, et al, 2021; Kyung et al, 2016). However, both studies in this area that have involved community adolescents, for whom the level of depressive symptoms was low, found non‐significant correlations between specificity as assessed by the AMT and depression (Lam et al, 2022; Salmon et al, 2021).…”

“…At the same time as we are developing the neurocognitive tools to be able to encode and retrieve specific instances from our own personal past in increasingly rich detail, the transition through adolescence and into adulthood, and this drive toward peer relations, gives us the social motivation to use important, specific, detailed past experiences to define who we are to others (Habermas & Bluck, 2000). As such, the association between specificity and detail may change across development, especially when people are asked to recall specific important instances from their past rather than multiple mundane instances as in Lam et al (2022). Further changes in the association between specificity and detail may also occur later in life given that as we progress into old age semantic memory becomes more important than episodic memory (Levine et al, 2002; St Jacques & Levine, 2007).…”

“…Lam et al (2022) conducted an investigation whose methodology (i.e., the use of the AMT) closely mirrored that of Hallford, Ricarte, and Hermans (2021) but included a sample of early adolescents (aged approximately 13 years old) from the community. They replicated many of the findings of Hallford, Ricarte, and Hermans (2021): that participants who retrieved more specific memories were also more detailed in their memories and that specific memories were more detailed than non‐specific memories.…”