Autobiographical memory impairments as a transdiagnostic feature of mental illness: A meta-analytic review of investigations into autobiographical memory specificity and overgenerality among people with psychiatric diagnoses.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom J. Barry ◽  
David J. Hallford ◽  
Keisuke Takano
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Psychiatric Diagnoses ◽  
Memory Impairments ◽  
Memory Specificity ◽  
Autobiographical Memory Specificity ◽  
Analytic Review

Autobiographical Memory Impairments as a Transdiagnostic Feature of Mental Illness: A meta-analysis of autobiographical memory specificity and overgenerality amongst people with psychiatric diagnoses

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Joseph Barry ◽  
David John Hallford ◽  
Keisuke Takano
Keyword(s):  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Memory Retrieval ◽  
Keyword Search ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Psychiatric Diagnoses ◽  
Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Memory Impairments ◽  
Memory Specificity ◽  
Causal Mechanisms

Decades of research has examined the difficulty that people with psychiatric diagnoses, such as Major Depressive Disorder, Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, have in recalling specific autobiographical memories from events that lasted less than a day. Instead, they seem to retrieve general events that have occurred many times or which occurred over longer periods of time, termed overgeneral memory. We present the first transdiagnostic meta-analysis of memory specificity/overgenerality, and the first meta-regression of proposed causal mechanisms. A keyword search of Embase, PsycARTICLES and PsycINFO databases yielded 74 studies that compared people with and without psychiatric diagnoses on the retrieval of specific (k = 85) or general memories (k = 56). Multi-level meta-analysis confirmed that people with psychiatric diagnoses typically recall fewer specific (g = -0.864, 95% CI[-1.030, -0.698]) and more general (g = .712, 95% CI[0.524, 0.900]) memories than diagnoses-free people. The size of these effects did not differ between diagnostic groups. There were no consistent moderators; effect sizes were not explained by methodological factors such as cue valence, or demographic variables such as participants’ age. There was also no support for the contribution of underlying processes that are thought to be involved in specific/general memory retrieval (e.g., rumination). Our findings confirm that deficits in autobiographical memory retrieval are a transdiagnostic factor associated with a broad range of psychiatric problems, but future research should explore novel causal mechanisms such as encoding deficits and the social processes involved in memory sharing and rehearsal.

An Examination of the Impact of Methodology on Autobiographical Memory Specificity

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Herting ◽  
John-Paul Legerski ◽  
Sarah Bunnel ◽  
Beth Bray ◽  
Thomas Petros
Keyword(s):  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Memory Specificity ◽  
Autobiographical Memory Specificity ◽  
The Impact

scholarly journals Effects of age, dysphoria, and emotion‐focusing on autobiographical memory specificity in children

2006 ◽  
Vol 20 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 488-505 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronan E. O'Carroll ◽  
Tim Dalgleish ◽  
Lyndsey E. Drummond ◽  
Barbara Dritschel ◽  
Arlene Astell
Keyword(s):  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Memory Specificity ◽  
Autobiographical Memory Specificity

scholarly journals Reduced autobiographical memory specificity affects general distress through poor social support

Memory ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (7) ◽  
pp. 916-923 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom J. Barry ◽  
Meghan Vinograd ◽  
Yannick Boddez ◽  
Filip Raes ◽  
Richard Zinbarg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Memory Specificity ◽  
General Distress ◽  
Autobiographical Memory Specificity ◽  
Poor Social Support

Reduced autobiographical memory specificity, avoidance, and repression

2006 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 522-522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk Hermans ◽  
Filip Raes ◽  
Carlos Iberico ◽  
J. Mark G. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Memory Search ◽  
Processing Style ◽  
Memory Specificity ◽  
Traumatic Memories ◽  
Autobiographical Memory Specificity ◽  
Affective Impact

Recent empirical work indicates that reduced autobiographical memory specificity can act as an avoidant processing style. By truncating the memory search before specific elements of traumatic memories are accessed, one can ward off the affective impact of negative reminiscences. This avoidant processing style can be viewed as an instance of what Erdelyi describes as the “subtractive” class of repressive processes.

Reduced autobiographical memory specificity and affect regulation

2006 ◽  
Vol 20 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 402-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Filip Raes ◽  
Dirk Hermans ◽  
J. Mark G. Williams ◽  
Paul Eelen
Keyword(s):  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Affect Regulation ◽  
Memory Specificity ◽  
Autobiographical Memory Specificity
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