Training to Inhibit Negative Content Affects Memory and Rumination

Abstract

Depressive rumination, the tendency to engage in repetitive self-focus in response to distress, seems to be affected by a variety of cognitive biases that in turn maintain negative emotional states. The current study examined whether the difficulty in inhibiting attention to negative information contributes to rumination and to rumination-related biases in memory. Seventy-nine ruminators underwent a 3-week computer-based training, designed to increase either inhibition of negative words or attention to them. On immediate post-training trials, as well as on 2-week follow-up tests, we found evidence for transfer of inhibition training. Training effects also occurred on session-by-session and post-training measures of state rumination, but not on a measure of trait rumination, assessed two weeks later. Finally, participants who were trained to inhibit negative material subsequently showed less negative bias on a memory test. These findings further establish the causal role of biased inhibition in rumination, and substantiate the view of rumination as a habit that encourages people to perceive, interpret, and remember events in a repetitive self-focused manner.

Mapping Dynamic Interactions Among Cognitive Biases in Depression

“…Finally, a recent study reported evidence supporting the role of WM operations in regulating LTM biases. In this study, individuals with a tendency to engage in repetitive negative thinking were trained to inhibit negative material from WM (Daches, Mor, & Hertel, 2019). Examining effects on LTM, it was found that the training resulted in a less negative bias in LTM.…”

Rumination: Practicing Retrieval of Autobiographical Memories

“…That tendency contributes to rumination, given experimental evidence that training a ruminative interpretation bias creates negatively biased recall of new ambiguous situations and higher rumination scores (Hertel, Mor, Ferrari, Hunt, & Agarwal, 2014). The good news is that training ruminators to ignore negative material can reduce subsequent memory bias (Daches, Mor, & Hertel, 2019). These findings on deficient control, habitual biases, and efforts to correct both are just a sampling of the wide literature on rumination and cognition, but evidence thus far had not connected rumination directly to the practice of repeated retrieval.…”

An Analysis of the Relationship between the Modified Theory of Planned Behavior and Leisure Rumination of Korean Employees

“…Negative personal evaluation rumination refers to a potential threat of receiving negative recognition and evaluations of one’s leisure activities from others in excessive work conditions [ 17 , 49 ]. A previous study found that by focusing more on their own thoughts and feelings than the judgments of others, individuals experienced fewer negative emotions, which resulted in lower stress levels [ 50 , 51 ].…”

“…Such problems can be solved through relaxation via leisure activities. Better recollections can be predicted through participation in the reflection of naturally occurring negative life events [ 49 , 58 ]. Therefore, negative personal evaluation rumination is expected to have a positive effect on one’s continuation of leisure activities through the judgment of others at work or in daily life.…”