Sentence examples for memory specificity and from inspiring English sources

Studies have also found a limited ability to generate positive future-related images in high-dysphoric individuals [ 24] as well as a connection between deficits in memory specificity and deficits in the specific imaginability of future related imagery in suicidal patients [ 29].

"Based on everything we know of memory specificity and depression, there's a good chance we will find these effects," said Dirk Hermans, a research psychologist at the University of Leuven in Belgium who collaborates with Dr. Williams.

A recent review of the literature on low memory specificity and emotional disorder has suggested that three processes analytical rumination (and capture by self-discrepancies), deficits in executive capacity and functional avoidance are likely to contribute to the phenomenon in depressed samples (Williams et al., 2007).

The findings of the current study support the suggestion that the reduction of habitual tendencies to ruminate may represent one plausible mechanism of action of MBCT on memory specificity and suggest that modifying trait tendencies to ruminate may have important consequences for other aspects of psychological functioning.

As it was hypothesised that increases in goal specificity would be part of a broader shift in processing style in individuals receiving MBCT, we also examined whether changes in goal specificity were associated with comparable changes in autobiographical memory specificity, and whether changes in mood mediated the effects of treatment on goal-related processing.

Studies which have used experimental manipulations to increase concrete thinking have demonstrated concurrent increases in the concreteness of problem solving plans and autobiographical memory specificity (Watkins and Moulds 2005; Watkins and Teasdale 2001, 2004), and previous studies have reported a similar effect of a course of MBCT on the autobiographical memory (Williams et al. 2000).

For example manipulations that promote a concrete processing style appear to have benefits for aspects of psychological functioning including autobiographical memory specificity (Watkins and Teasdale 2001, 2004) and emotional reactivity (Watkins et al. 2008), when compared to manipulations that encourage ruminative thinking.

One of the male participants (who was allocated to the analytical condition) was identified as a statistical outlier on the pre-manipulation memory specificity score and was excluded from further analysis as he retrieved only one specific memory and it was unclear whether he had understood the task instructions.

3,4 The effects of the manipulations on memory specificity in high and low ruminators are shown in Fig. 1.

It is therefore of interest to understand more about the processes that maintain low memory specificity during depression and those that may encourage it to persist or re-emerge in the recovery phase.

In a study amongst formerly suicidal patients, Williams et al. [ 7] showed that problem-solving abilities and autobiographical memory specificity, commonly associated with suicidal thinking and behavior, deteriorate when the patient's mood lowers again.