The cost in remembering of ruminating on negative memories

Bibliographic Data

ID15408647
AuthorsLaura Small (UNSW Sydney, corresponding author), Lucy Kenny (UNSW Sydney), Rebecca A Bryant (0000-0002-9607-819X, UNSW Sydney)
Year2011
Volume11
Issue6
Pages1434-1438
Publication date2011-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEmotion (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1528-3542 • E-ISSN: 1931-1516
PublisherAmerican Psychological Association (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1037/a0026436
PMID22142211
OpenAlexW1973681228
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited5

This study investigated retrieval mechanisms that may be involved in memory for distressing stimuli. Forty-one nonclinical participants watched a video clip depicting the immediate aftermath of a serious car accident. Following this, half of the participants were instructed to focus attention on the victims of the accident and to consider the negative sequelae of their injuries. The remaining participants were not given any instructions. Following the Victim Focus/Control period, all participants completed a cued-recall task assessing their memory of the video clip. Overall, victim-related details were better recalled than nonvictim related details. It is important to note that participants in the Victim Focus condition retrieved fewer peripheral details than participants in the Control condition. These results suggest that people focusing attention on distressing aspects of an event can experience a cost in remembering other aspects of the event. These findings may be interpreted in terms of enhanced recollection of central events or retrieval-induced forgetting mechanisms to explain patterns of diminished memory for aspects of distressing events

Cognitive psychology · Cued speech · Developmental psychology · Distressing · Focus (optics · Forgetting · Mnemonic · Motivated forgetting · Recall · Task (project management · Identity, Memory, and Therapy · Memory Processes and Influences · Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research · Psychology

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