The devil’s in the detail: Accessibility of specific personal memories supports rose-tinted self-generalizations in mental health and toxic self-generalizations in clinical depression.

Abstract

Models of memory propose that separate systems underpin the storage and recollection of specific events from our past (e.g., the first day at school), and of the generic structure of our experiences (e.g., how lonely I am), and that interplay between these systems serves to optimize everyday cognition. Specifically, it is proposed that memories of discrete events help define the circumstances (boundary conditions) in which our generalized knowledge applies, thereby enhancing accuracy of memory-dependent cognitive processes. However, in the domain of self-judgment, cognition is systematically biased, with a robust self-enhancement bias characterizing healthy individuals and a negativity bias characterizing the clinically depressed. We hypothesized that self-enhancement effects in the mentally healthy may partly rest on an impaired ability for specific memories to set appropriate boundary conditions on positive self-generalizations, while the opposite may be true for self-referred negative traits in the depressed. To assess this, we asked healthy and depressed individuals to think about the applicability of a trait to themselves, then to recall a specific memory that was inconsistent with that trait which would therefore index a boundary condition for its applicability. Healthy individuals showed faster recall only for specific positive memories following negative trait evaluations, while depressed individuals demonstrated faster recall only of specific negative memories following positive trait evaluations-the pattern expected given the respective self-enhancement and negativity biases. Results suggest that specific memories may serve to delimit self-generalizations in biased ways, and thus support systemic biases in trait judgments characteristic of healthy and depressed individuals. (PsycINFO Database Record

Positive memory specificity is associated with reduced vulnerability to depression

“…We further identify a potential cognitive mechanism whereby specific positive memories predict lower negative self-cognitions in response to stress. As such, it may be that specific positive memories help form boundaries to the scope of negative self-cognitions, thereby reducing the likelihood of the emergence of depressogenic symptoms 36 . We recently showed that emphasising the value of positive social experiences as part of a brief psychological treatment programme can lead to depressive symptom reduction on par with existing treatments in depressed adolescents 37 .…”

Misremembrance of things past: Depression is associated with difficulties in the recollection of both specific and categoric autobiographical memories

“…The generalized summaries provided by categoric memories guide efficient decision making (Klein et al, 2001;Cosmides & Tooby, 2000), while specific memories play an important role in problem solving (Jing et al, 2016) and facilitating social interaction (Beike et al, 2016)everyday skills which are compromised during depression, subsequently driving functional impairment. Further, we recently demonstrated that interaction between generalisations and specific memories may serve to shape emotionally valenced selfevaluations (Hitchcock, Rees, & Dalgleish, 2017). Improving the ease with which depressed individuals can generate these different memory types on demand, and move between them, may therefore help to alleviate symptoms of depression.…”

Misremembrance of Things Past: Depression Is Associated With Difficulties in the Recollection of Both Specific and Categoric Autobiographical Memories

“…cognitively reappraise difficult situations, solve problems, and populate the details of future plans by providing detailed information about what has worked in the past ( Jing et al, 2016) and set boundary conditions for the validity of generalized memories (Hitchcock, Rees, & Dalgleish, 2017).…”