Abstract
Many reports have described that a survival judgment task that requires participants to judge words according to their relevance to a survival situation can engender better recall than that obtained in other judgment tasks such as semantic or self-judgment tasks. We investigated whether memory enhancement related to the survival judgment task is elicited or not in subclinically depressed participants. Based on the BDI score, participants were classified as either depressed or non-depressed participants. Then 20 depressed participants and 24 non-depressed participants performed a survival judgment task and an autobiographical recall task. Results showed memory enhancement related to the survival judgment task in both depressed and non-depressed participants, but showed lower memory enhancement related to the survival judgment task in depressed participants than in non-depressed participants. These results suggest that the survival judgment task benefit is a robust phenomenon. Moreover, that benefit was reduced by depressed emotion. The combination hypothesis better explains the mechanism of memory enhancement related to the survival judgment task than the functional, emotional, and arousal or congruency hypothesis does.
Highlights
DEPRESSED MOOD AND MEMORY PERFORMANCE Depressed mood can change a way we feel and can change our memory performance (Burt et al, 1995; Veiel, 1997)
The reasons why we focused on memory deficit in depressed participants were (1) numerous studies reported the memory deficits in depressed people (e.g., Burt et al, 1995; Veiel, 1997; Austin et al, 2001), (2) some studies showed an association between severities of depressed mood and memory impairments (e.g., McDermott and Ebmeier, 2009; Sheline et al, 2006), (3) memory deficit would affects daily activity
These results revealed that the survival judgment task benefit occurred in both non-depression participants and depression participants
Summary
DEPRESSED MOOD AND MEMORY PERFORMANCE Depressed mood can change a way we feel and can change our memory performance (Burt et al, 1995; Veiel, 1997). A second memory bias is overgenerality of autobiographical memory (e.g.,Williams et al, 2007) This bias is that depressed participants have a tendency to recall categories of repeated events or impair retrieval of memories of specific autobiographical events. The reasons why we focused on memory deficit in depressed participants were (1) numerous studies reported the memory deficits in depressed people (e.g., Burt et al, 1995; Veiel, 1997; Austin et al, 2001), (2) some studies showed an association between severities of depressed mood and memory impairments (e.g., McDermott and Ebmeier, 2009; Sheline et al, 2006), (3) memory deficit would affects daily activity (e.g., memory deficits may cause forgetting to take medicine)
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