Trait Rumination Is Associated with Enhanced Recollection of Negative Words

Rumination is associated with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). To better understand this association, researchers have begun to investigate the relationship between rumination and cognitive biases that are linked to MDD. To date, several studies have found that rumination is related to negatively biased memory, but it is not clear whether this relationship is independent of depressive symptoms. To address this question, the present study examined 97 healthy Caucasian women between the ages of 18 and 25. Participants performed an encoding task of self-referent adjectives, followed by a recognition task. The recognition task utilized a remember/know paradigm to separately examine recollection-based memory and familiarity-based memory. Trait rumination was assessed using the ruminative response scale (RRS). Results indicate that high trait rumination is associated with selective enhancement of recollection for negative words compared to neutral words and a trend toward selective enhancement for recollection for negative words compared to positive words. Trait rumination does not affect biases in overall recognition sensitivity or familiarity.