Response styles to sad mood and self-esteem as predictors of autobiographical memory: Distinctions between memory specificity and detail

Abstract

Past studies have found that ruminative responses to sad mood contribute to impaired autobiographical memory (AM) retrieval. We tested the theoretical proposition that generalized negative beliefs about the self increase the impact of rumination, and examined both memory specificity (recall of single unique events occurring in one day) and memory detail (number of unique units of information in specific memories). Results indicated that memory specificity and detail were weakly correlated. Greater distraction was associated with poorer memory specificity, whereas greater distraction and lower ruminative questioning were associated with less memory detail, but only among individuals with low self-esteem. The study suggests that ruminative questioning and distraction play a stronger role in AM detail among individuals with generalized negative beliefs about the self, and supports the role of functional avoidance in impaired retrieval of specific memories and the distinction between AM specificity and detail.