Autobiographical memory specificity and social problem solving in females with subclinical eating psychopathology

Abstract

In comparison to healthy participants, patients with clinical eating disorders have been shown to retrieve fewer specific, and a greater number of general, memories on the autobiographical memory test (AMT). ‘Overgeneral’ memory is associated with poor social problem-solving (SPS). The current study examined if subclinical eating psychopathology is also associated with ‘overgeneral’ AM and poor SPS. High and low scorers on the Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI-II) were compared on their ability to retrieve specific memories in response to emotional word cues. Participants also completed the means-end SPS task (MEPS). High EDI scorers retrieved significantly fewer specific, and a greater number of categorical, memories than did the low EDI scorers. They also produced fewer, and less effective, means on the MEPS. Performance on the MEPS was positively related to AM specificity and negatively related to the number of categorical memories. These findings remained significant even after controlling for depression.