Autobiographical memory specificity and emotional disorder

Abstract

The authors review research showing that when recalling autobiographical events, many emotionally disturbed patients summarize categories of events rather than retrieving a single episode. The mechanisms underlying such overgeneral memory are examined, with a focus on M. A. Conway and C. W. Pleydell-Pearce's (2000) hierarchical search model of personal event retrieval. An elaboration of this model is proposed to account for overgeneral memory, focusing on how memory search can be affected by (a) capture and rumination processes, when mnemonic information used in retrieval activates ruminative thinking; (b) functional avoidance, when episodic material threatens to cause affective disturbance; and (c) impairment in executive capacity and control that limits an individual's ability to remain focused on retrieval in the face of distraction.

Figure 1. Hierarchical structure of autobiographical memory. From “Memory and the Self,” by M. A. Conway, 2005Journal of Memory and Language, 53, p. 609. Copyright 2005 by Elsevier. Reprinted with permission

Figure 2. Hierarchical processes in generative retrieval. The figure shows schematically what is assumed to occur in cue word retrieval. Retrieval starts with elaborating the cue semantically and moving through generating generic descriptions to more specific mnemonic material. Early in generative retrieval, more verbal–abstract code is involved, and more sensory–perceptual code is used later in the process

Figure 3. The CaR-FA-X model: Three processes contributing to overgeneral memory—capture and rumination (CaR), functional avoidance (FA), and impaired executive capacity and control (X)—can each have effects on cognition and behavior (e.g., problem solving), either independently or through their individual or combined effect on autobiographical memory