Regret as autobiographical memory

We apply all autobiographical memory framework to the Study of regret. Focusing oil the distinction between regrets for specific and general events we argue that the temporal profile of regret, usually explained in terms of the action-inaction distinction, is predicted by models of autobiographical memory. In two studies involving Participants in their sixties we demonstrate a reminiscence bump for general, but not for specific regrets. Recent regrets were more likely to be specific than general in nature. Coding regrets as actions/inactions revealed that general regrets were significantly more likely to be due to inaction while specific regrets were as likely to be clue to action as to inaction. In Study 2 we also generalised all of these findings to a group of participants in their 40s. We re-interpret existing accounts of the temporal profile of regret within the autobiographical memory framework, and Outline the practical and theoretical advantages Of Our memory-based distinction over traditional decision-making approaches to the Study of regret. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Autobiographical memory specificity, depression, and trauma in bipolar disorder

Objectives. In a bipolar disorder (BD) sample, the present study investigated: (i) the prevalence of trauma; (ii) the specificity of autobiographical memory (AM); (iii) the influence of childhood trauma on AM specificity, current inter-episode depressive mood, and BD severity; (iv) if AM specificity moderates the influence of childhood trauma on current inter-episode depressive mood and BD severity.

Methods. Fifty-two participants were recruited from a geographically well-defined mental health service in Northern Ireland. The AM test, self-report measures of lifetime experience of trauma, childhood trauma, and depression were administered. Severity of BD was estimated utilizing a systematic tool for reviewing all available clinical data of participants.

Results. A high prevalence of trauma was found. A total of 94.2% (49/52) of participants reported experiencing a traumatic event in either childhood or adulthood. AM specificity was significantly lower than previous reports of such in major depression. However, whilst childhood trauma predicted current inter-episode depressive mood, childhood trauma was not predictive of BD severity or AM specificity. Moreover, the association between childhood trauma and depressed mood was not moderated by AM specificity.

Conclusions. The findings of this study suggest a relationship between early psychosocial adversity and current inter-episode depressive mood in BD. In addition, levels of overgeneral AM are similar to that reported for depression, but are unrelated to childhood trauma, current inter-episode depressive mood, or BD severity. Clinical implications include the importance of routine assessment of trauma in BD and the need for adjunctive evidenced-based psychological therapies.

Identification of tone duration, line length and letter position: An experimental approach to timing and working memory deficits in schizophrenia.

Patients with schizophrenia display numerous cognitive deficits, including problems in working memory, time estimation, and absolute identification of stimuli. Research in these fields has traditionally been conducted independently. We examined these cognitive processes using tasks that are structurally similar and that yield rich error data. Relative to healthy control participants (n = 20), patients with schizophrenia (n = 20) were impaired on a duration identification task and a probed-recall memory task but not on a line-length identification task. These findings do not support the notion of a global impairment in absolute identification in schizophrenia. However, the authors suggest that some aspect of temporal information processing is indeed disturbed in schizophrenia.