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Updated: Jul 15, 2026
08:05
A Prediction Error-driven Retrieval Procedure for Destabilizing and Rewriting Maladaptive Reward Memories in Hazardous Drinkers
Published on: January 5, 2018
Failures to retrieve specific memories in previously depressed individuals: random errors or content-related?
Thorsten Barnhofer1, Catherine Crane, Philip Spinhoven
1Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital, Oxford, UK. thorsten.barnhofer@psych.ox.ac.uk
Behaviour Research and Therapy
|April 3, 2007
Summary
In previously depressed individuals, negative attitudes about needing approval worsen memory recall specificity for personal events, especially when cognitive control is reduced. This suggests memory retrieval is influenced by content, not just cognitive lapses.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Clinical Psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Failures in specific memory retrieval are linked to executive functioning errors.
- It remains unclear if these retrieval failures reflect random cognitive control lapses or are influenced by memory content.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between specific autobiographical memory retrieval failures and dysfunctional attitudes in individuals at risk for depression.
- To examine how cognitive control demands influence this relationship.
Main Methods:
- Assessed dysfunctional attitudes (need for approval, performance evaluation) in previously depressed and never-depressed individuals.
- Participants generated specific autobiographical memories using dependency- and achievement-related cues under single and dual task conditions.
Main Results:
- In previously depressed participants, dysfunctional attitudes regarding 'need for approval' significantly predicted reduced specificity for dependency-related memories.
- This effect was particularly evident under dual task conditions, indicating reduced cognitive control.
Conclusions:
- Findings offer qualified support for the role of memory content in retrieval failures.
- In previously depressed individuals, content effects on memory retrieval emerge when cognitive control is compromised.
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