Negative body image and avoidant retrieval of body-related autobiographical memories.

People with a negative body image may be more likely to recall negative memories of their body, but also be motivated to avoid retrieving specific memories to prevent triggering aversive emotions (e.g., disgust). Such inclination to retain at a global level of memory recall may hamper the correction of their negative body image. In previous research using Autobiographical Memory Tests (AMTs) with minimal instructions, we failed to find an overgeneral memory bias specific to individuals with a negative body image but observed low specificity overall in response to body cue words. In the present study (N = 153), we included the traditional AMT next to a minimal instructions AMT and explored the idea that sensory reliving may be relevant to avoidance by assessing sensory reliving ratings next to memory specificity. A negative body image was associated with more negative body memories. In both AMTs, the findings failed to support our prediction that a more negative body image would be associated with lower specificity or sensory reliving. The findings are consistent with the view that autobiographical memories might be an important factor in defining one's body image, yet cast doubt on the relevance of avoidant retrieval of body-related memories in non-clinical samples.

Suppression-induced forgetting: a pre-registered replication of the think/no-think paradigm.

Post-traumatic stress disorder is characterised by recurring memories of a traumatic experience despite deliberate attempts to forget (i.e., suppression). The Think/No-Think (TNT) task has been used widely in the laboratory to study suppression-induced forgetting. During the task, participants learn a series of cue-target word pairs. Subsequently, they are presented with a subset of the cue words and are instructed to think (respond items) or not think about the corresponding target (suppression items). Baseline items are not shown during this phase. Successful suppression-induced forgetting is indicated by the reduced recall of suppression compared to baseline items in recall tests using either the same or different cues than originally studied (i.e., same- and independent-probe tests, respectively). The current replication was a pre-registered collaborative effort to evaluate an online experimenter-present version of the paradigm in 150 English-speaking healthy individuals (89 females; MAge = 31.14, SDAge = 7.73). Overall, we did not replicate the suppression-induced forgetting effect (same-probe: BF01 = 7.84; d = 0.03 [95% CI: -0.13; 0.20]; independent-probe: BF01 = 5.71; d = 0.06 [95% CI: -0.12; 0.24]). These null results should be considered in light of our online implementation of the paradigm. Nevertheless, our findings call into question the robustness of suppression-induced forgetting.

Escaping from revulsion - disgust and escape in response to body-relevant autobiographical memories.

The term Repulsive Body Image (RBI) refers to a schematic construct combining body-directed self-disgust and other negative body image features, that is assumed to bias information processing, including autobiographical memory retrieval. When specific memories about the own body are retrieved, intense self-disgust may arise and trigger urges to escape from those memories. We asked 133 women with high (HRBI; n = 63) and low (LRBI; n = 70) levels of habitual body-directed self-disgust to recall autobiographical memories in response to 11 concrete body-related cue words in a minimal instructions Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT). Despite an overall low level of memory specificity, we found that RBI levels were associated with stronger disgust reactions and stronger motivations to escape from body-related memories. In addition, disgust reactions to body-related memories accounted for the association between habitual levels of self-disgust and urges to escape from these memories. Thus, the findings indicated that women with body image concerns showed disgust-based urges to escape from body-related memories. This disgust-based urge to avert from body-related autobiographical memories might counteract the correction of an RBI, thereby contributing to the persistence of body image concerns and associated psychopathology.

A multiverse analysis of early attempts to replicate memory suppression with the Think/No-think Task.

In 2001, Anderson and Green [2001. Suppressing unwanted memories by executive control. Nature, 410(6826), 366-369] showed memory suppression using a novel Think/No-think (TNT) task. When participants attempted to prevent studied words from entering awareness, they reported fewer of those words than baseline words in subsequent cued recall (i.e., suppression effect). The TNT literature contains predominantly positive findings and few null-results. Therefore we report unpublished replications conducted in the 2000s (N = 49; N = 36). As the features of the data obtained with the TNT task call for a variety of plausible solutions, we report parallel "universes" of data-analyses (i.e., multiverse analysis) testing the suppression effect. Two published studies (Wessel et al., 2005. Dissociation and memory suppression: A comparison of high and low dissociative individuals' performance on the Think-No think Task. Personality and Individual Differences, 39(8), 1461-1470, N = 68; Wessel et al., 2010. Cognitive control and suppression of memories of an emotional film. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 41(2), 83-89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2009.10.005, N = 80) were reanalysed in a similar fashion. For recall probed with studied cues (Same Probes, SP), some tests (sample 3) or all (samples 2 and 4) showed statistically significant suppression effects, whereas in sample 1, only one test showed significance. Recall probed with novel cues (Independent Probes, IP) predominantly rendered non-significant results. The absence of statistically significant IP suppression effects raises problems for inhibition theory and its implication that repression is a viable mechanism of forgetting. The pre-registration, materials, data, and code are publicly available (https://osf.io/qgcy5/).

The role of event relevance and congruence to social groups in flashbulb memory formation.

Flashbulb memories are vivid, confidently held, long-lasting memories for the personal circumstances of learning about an important event. Importance is determined, in part, by social group membership. Events that are relevant to one's social group, and furthermore, are congruent with the prior beliefs of that group, should be more likely to be retained as flashbulb memories. The Fukushima nuclear disaster was relevant to ongoing political conversations in both Germany and the Netherlands, but, while the disaster was congruent with German beliefs about the dangers of nuclear energy, it was incongruent with Dutch support for nuclear power. Danish participants would not have found the disaster to be particularly relevant. Partially consistent with this prediction, across two samples (N = 265 and N = 518), German participants were most likely to have flashbulb memories for the Fukushima disaster. Furthermore, event features thought to be related to flashbulb memory formation (e.g. ratings of importance and consequentiality) also differed as a function of nationality. Spontaneously generated flashbulb memories for events other than Fukushima also suggested that participants reported events that were relevant to national identity (e.g. the Munich attacks for Germans, the Utøya massacre for Danes, and Malaysian Airlines flight MH-17 for Dutch participants).

Manipulating the reported age in earliest memories.

Previous work suggests that the estimated age in adults' earliest autobiographical memories depends on age information implied by the experimental context [e.g., Kingo, O. S., Bohn, A., & Krøjgaard, P. (2013). Warm-up questions on early childhood memories affect the reported age of earliest memories in late adolescence. Memory, 21(2), 280-284. doi: 10.1080/09658211.2012.729598 ] and that the age in decontextualised snippets of memory is younger than in more complete accounts (i.e., event memories [Bruce, D., Wilcox-O'Hearn, L. A., Robinson, J. A., Phillips-Grant, K., Francis, L., & Smith, M. C. (2005). Fragment memories mark the end of childhood amnesia. Memory & Cognition, 33(4), 567-576. doi: 10.3758/BF03195324 ]). We examined the malleability of the estimated age in undergraduates' earliest memories and its relation with memory quality. In Study 1 (n = 141), vignettes referring to events happening at age 2 rendered earlier reported ages than examples referring to age 6. Exploratory analyses suggested that event memories were more sensitive to the age manipulation than memories representing a single, isolated scene (i.e., snapshots). In Study 2 (n = 162), asking self-relevant and public-event knowledge questions about participants' preschool years prior to retrieval yielded comparable average estimated ages. Both types of semantic knowledge questions rendered earlier memories than a no-age control task. Overall, the reported age in snapshots was younger than in event memories. However, age-differences between memory types across conditions were not statistically significant. Together, the results add to the growing literature indicating that the average age in earliest memories is not as fixed as previously thought.

Exploration of the Associations Between Responses to Affective States and Psychopathology in Two Samples of People Confronted With the Loss of a Loved One.

Adaptive regulation of positive and negative affect after the loss of a loved one may foster recovery. In two studies, using similar methods but different samples, we explored the association between positive (i.e., dampening and enhancing) and negative (i.e., rumination) affect regulation strategies and symptoms levels of postloss psychopathology. Study 1 used data from 187 people confronted with the death of a loved one. In study 2, the sample consisted of 134 relatives of long-term missing persons. Participants completed self-reports tapping prolonged grief, depression, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and affect regulation strategies. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that both negative and positive affect regulation strategies explained significant amounts of variance symptom levels in both samples. In line with previous work, our results suggest that negative and positive affect regulation strategies relate to postloss psychopathology. Future research should explore how both affect regulation strategies may adequately be addressed in treatment.

Collaboration enhances later individual memory for emotional material.

Research on collaborative remembering suggests that collaboration hampers group memory (i.e., collaborative inhibition), yet enhances later individual memory. Studies examining collaborative effects on memory for emotional stimuli are scarce, especially concerning later individual memory. In the present study, female undergraduates watched an emotional movie and recalled it either collaboratively (n = 60) or individually (n = 60), followed by an individual free recall test and a recognition test. We replicated the standard collaborative inhibition effect. Further, in line with the literature, the collaborative condition displayed better post-collaborative individual memory. More importantly, in post-collaborative free recall, the centrality of the information to the movie plot did not play an important role. Recognition rendered slightly different results. Although collaboration rendered more correct recognition for more central details, it did not enhance recognition of background details. Secondly, the collaborative and individual conditions did not differ with respect to overlap of unique correct items in free recall. Yet, during recognition former collaborators more unanimously endorsed correct answers, as well as errors. Finally, extraversion, neuroticism, social anxiety, and depressive symptoms did not moderate the influence of collaboration on memory. Implications for the fields of forensic and clinical psychology are discussed.

Binding Temporal Context in Memory: Impact of Emotional Arousal as a Function of State Anxiety and State Dissociation.

Encoding of stressful experiences plays an important role in the development of posttraumatic stress disorder. A crucial aspect of memory encoding is binding: the "gluing" of the temporal and spatial elements of an episode into a cohesive unit. This study investigated the effect of emotional arousal on temporal binding and examined whether temporal binding varied as a function of state anxiety and/or state dissociation. Participants saw picture sequences that varied in arousal and valence. After each sequence, participants were presented with all the pictures simultaneously and had to sort the pictures in the original order. Temporal context binding was indexed by sorting accuracy. Binding was generally lower for high than low arousing pictures. Reduced binding of arousing material was specifically pronounced in participants with high state anxiety, whereas it seemed independent of state dissociation. These findings point to the relevance of impaired temporal binding as a component of aberrant memory encoding in stressful situations.

Collaborative recall of details of an emotional film.

Collaborative inhibition refers to the phenomenon that when several people work together to produce a single memory report, they typically produce fewer items than when the unique items in the individual reports of the same number of participants are combined (i.e., nominal recall). Yet, apart from this negative effect, collaboration may be beneficial in that group members remove errors from a collaborative report. Collaborative inhibition studies on memory for emotional stimuli are scarce. Therefore, the present study examined both collaborative inhibition and collaborative error reduction in the recall of the details of emotional material in a laboratory setting. Female undergraduates (n = 111) viewed a film clip of a fatal accident and subsequently engaged in either collaborative (n = 57) or individual recall (n = 54) in groups of three. The results show that, across several detail categories, collaborating groups recalled fewer details than nominal groups. However, overall, nominal recall produced more errors than collaborative recall. The present results extend earlier findings on both collaborative inhibition and error reduction to the recall of affectively laden material. These findings may have implications for the applied fields of forensic and clinical psychology.

Differential correlates of autobiographical memory specificity to affective and self-discrepant cues.

According to the CaRFAX model (Williams et al., 2007), several processes may result in overgeneral autobiographical memory. The present study examined whether the type of cue used in the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT) is important for illuminating relationships between autobiographical memory specificity and variables pertinent to the Functional Avoidance (FA) and Capture and Rumination (CaR) aspects of the model. Sixty-one women varying in their experience of a potentially traumatic event and previous depression completed two versions of the AMT: one containing affective cues and the other containing cues representing idiosyncratic self-discrepancies. Consistent with the FA hypothesis, avoidance of the potentially traumatic event was associated with fewer specific memories on the affective, but not the self-discrepant AMT. Furthermore, in line with the CaR hypothesis, performance on the self-discrepant, but not the affective AMT was related to ruminative self-reflection in women reporting previous depression, even after controlling for current depression and education levels. Together the results suggest that varying cue type may increase the sensitivity of the AMT, depending on the aspect of the CaRFAX model of overgeneral memory that is to be addressed.

Repeated exposure to body-related memories in women with high body-related self-disgust: Impact on disgust, avoidance, and acceptance.

Disgust-based body image concerns can bias autobiographical memory towards the recall and avoidant processing of disgust-related memories of the own body. Repeated exposure to such memories may help breaking avoidance and promote the habituation of disgust, thereby lowering body concerns. Using a pre-post within-participant experimental design, we tested if repeatedly exposing women with high self-disgust (N = 61) to disgust-focused body memories vs. neutral memories led to changes in disgust, body acceptance, and reactive avoidance. Contrary to expectations, state disgust towards the body itself only decreased following exposure to neutral memories. Yet, disgust elicited by body-related memories decreased following both repeated exposure to neutral and body memories. Although acceptance was not found to significantly change in either exposure session, pre-post decreases in state disgust were associated with increases in acceptance following the disgust-focused exposure. In contrast to expectations, reactive avoidance increased from pre to post in the disgust-focused exposure. Overall, the results indicate that repeated exposure to disgust-focused body memories may help reduce disgust elicited by these memories and promote body acceptance. Yet, the effect of this repeated exposure to body memories did not extend to changing state disgust towards the body, possibly due to reactive avoidance.

Depressive symptoms moderate the effects of a self-discrepancy induction on overgeneral autobiographical memory.

According to the CaRFAX model, rumination is one of the key underlying mechanisms of overgeneral autobiographical memory (OGM). The association between rumination and OGM is well established in clinical populations, but this relationship is not robust in nonclinical samples. A series of null findings is reported in the current paper. Additionally we followed up on recent findings suggesting that a state of rumination needs to be active in order to detect a relationship between trait-rumination and OGM. Secondary school students (N= 123) completed questionnaires assessing trait-rumination and depressive symptoms as well as two autobiographical memory tests (AMTs), one before and one after a self-discrepancy induction. This induction should trigger state-rumination, which would subsequently promote the retrieval of general rather than specific memories. Trait-rumination failed to predict increases in OGM. We did find, however, that higher BDI-II scores were positively related to an increase in OGM following the induction. This adds to the growing body of evidence that OGM reactivity might be more important than baseline memory specificity.

Fathers with PTSD and depression in pregnancies complicated by preterm preeclampsia or PPROM.

PURPOSE: To assess prevalence and risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression in fathers after early preeclampsia (PE) or preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM). METHODS: Partners of patients hospitalized for PE or PPROM and partners of healthy controls completed PTSD (PSS-SR) and depression (BDI-II) questionnaires during pregnancy (t 1) and 6 weeks postpartum (t 2). 85 of the 187 eligible men participated (51 partners of patients, 34 partners of control) at t 1, and 66 men participated both time points. RESULTS: No significant differences were found between partners of patients and partners of controls in symptoms of PTSD and depression (t 1: p = 0.28 for PTSD and p = 0.34 for depression; t 2: p = 0.08 for PTSD and p = 0.31 for depression). For partners of patients, correlation between PTSD and depression sum-scores was 0.48 (p < 0.001) at t 1 and 0.86 (p < 0.001) at t 2. Within-couple correlation was low and not significant during pregnancy, but strong at postpartum (PSS-SR: r = 0.62, p < 0.001; BDI-II: r = 0.59, p < 0.001). Higher paternal age was associated with more symptoms of PTSD and depression postpartum in partners of patients. Symptoms of PTSD and depression during pregnancy predicted the occurrence of PTSD symptoms following childbirth in partners of patients. CONCLUSIONS: Symptoms of PTSD and depression occurred at a similar rate in partners of women with PE or PPROM and partners of healthy pregnant controls. Symptoms of PTSD and depression during pregnancy predicted the occurrence of PTSD symptoms following childbirth. Increased paternal age predicted more symptoms of PTSD and depression postpartum. At 6 weeks postpartum, a strong association was found between men and women in symptoms of PTSD and depression.

Suppression-Induced Forgetting as a Model for Repression.

The Think/No-Think (T/NT) task was designed to test whether the deliberate avoidance of retrieving a memory (i.e., suppression) hinders the subsequent recall of that memory. Forgetting effects obtained with the T/NT-task (Suppression-Induced Forgetting) are thought to result from memory inhibition: the deactivation of the representation of the to-be-suppressed memory. Memory inhibition can be specifically inferred from decreased performance on a test using Independent Probes-cues that are unrelated to the initial study phase in the T/NT-procedure. The present contribution explores the evidence for the idea that Suppression-Induced Forgetting obtained with such Independent Probes may provide a viable model for repression. A review of the literature on Suppression-Induced Forgetting with Independent Probes (SIF-IP) suggests that reliable estimates of the overall effect size are unavailable, that the extent to which the literature suffers from publication bias is unknown and that reporting bias may obstruct a clear view of the percentage of studies that find a statistically significant effect. In addition, it is difficult to study SIF-IP in autobiographical memories, due to their complexity and idiosyncrasy. All in all, it seems questionable whether suppression-induced forgetting obtained with independent probes provides a viable model of repression.

Fewer intrusions after an attentional bias modification training for perceptual reminders of analogue trauma.

The present experimental analogue study used computerised attention training to investigate the role of attention bias in the prediction of intrusive memories. After exposure to a trauma film, participants in a training group (n=22) were presented with a variant of the exogenic cueing task (ECT) in which visual film reminders (i.e., stills from the trauma film) were always presented during invalid and neutral control stimuli always during valid trials. The purpose of this cue-location contingency was reinforcing the direction of attention away from film reminders. Control participants (n=23) performed a similar training without such a contingency. Post-training processing bias was assessed with a single target Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) task, in which trauma-film reminders served as task-irrelevant distracters appearing shortly before a neutral target. The frequency of film-related intrusions was recorded in a take-home diary and at a follow-up session three days after film viewing. Participants who underwent attention training reported fewer film-related intrusions and showed less interference by visual film distracters than controls. Implications for research on attention bias after real-life trauma are discussed.

Individual differences in avoiding feelings of disgust: Development and construct validity of the disgust avoidance questionnaire.

We developed and examined the construct validity of the Disgust Avoidance Questionnaire (DAQ) as a measure of people's inclination to prevent experiencing disgust (disgust prevention) and to escape from the experience of disgust (disgust escape). In a stepwise item-reduction (Study 1; N = 417) using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) based on a 4-subscale distinction (behavioral prevention, cognitive prevention, behavioral escape, cognitive escape), we selected 17 items from a pool of potential items. In order to incorporate the conceptual overlap between dimensions of disgust avoidance, focus (prevention vs. escape), and strategy (behavioral avoidance vs. cognitive avoidance), we specified an adapted model. In this model, we allowed each item to load on one type of dimension and one type of strategy, resulting in four overlapping factors (prevention, escape, behavioral avoidance, cognitive avoidance). Evaluation of this overlapping 4-factor model (Study 2; N = 513) using Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (ESEM) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) showed promising model fit indices, factor loadings, factor correlations, and reliability estimates for three of the four factors (prevention, behavioral avoidance, cognitive avoidance). Those three subscales also showed good convergent validity. In contrast, the results related to the escape factor may call the suitability of self-report to assess disgust escape into question. In light of the exploratory nature of the project, future examinations of the DAQ's validity and applicability to more diverse samples are essential. A critical next step for future research would be to examine the DAQ's criterion validity and the distinctive roles of the DAQ subscales in (clinical) psychological constructs and processes.

Neurocognitive functioning in women with a history of eclampsia: executive functioning and sustained attention.

Recently, information has emerged that formerly eclamptic women may suffer cognitive impairment. This may be related to cerebral white matter lesions. The few available reports demonstrate inconsistent results. We sought to elucidate cognitive performance after eclampsia in a pilot study. Twenty-six eclamptic, 20 preeclamptic, and 18 healthy parous women performed the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART; the ability to sustain mindful processing of repetitive stimuli that would otherwise lead to habituation) and the Random Number Generation Task (RNG; executive functioning, i.e., inhibition and updating/monitoring). Average age was 40 years, elapsed time since index pregnancy was 9 years. Education levels did not differ. There were no intercurrent illnesses. No significant differences were found on SART and RNG scores between groups. This study was not able to demonstrate evidence for impaired sustained attention and executive functioning after eclampsia. Studies including a much wider range of neurocognitive tests amplified to posterior brain regions with larger groups are necessary.

Prepartum autobiographical memory specificity predicts post-traumatic stress symptoms following complicated pregnancy.

Prior research has shown that reduced autobiographical memory specificity predicts an increase in post-traumatic stress severity in traumatised individuals. Studies have also demonstrated that reduced memory specificity predicts later symptoms of depression after pregnancy-related life stress. So far, no reported studies have tested the predictive value of memory specificity at the onset of a potentially traumatic situation. Therefore the aim of the present study was to investigate whether prenatal memory specificity would predict post-traumatic stress after complicated pregnancy. The results demonstrate that women who retrieved fewer specific memories with a pregnancy-related content to positive cues during pregnancy (i.e., directly after hospitalisation) reported more post-traumatic stress 6 weeks after giving birth. This relationship remained significant after controlling for variables that were related to both baseline autobiographical memory specificity and later post-traumatic stress. A similar pattern was found for depression symptomatology, even when somatic symptoms were excluded from the analyses. Taken together, these data suggest that the relationship of memory specificity with later depression can be generalised to post-traumatic stress symptoms.