Positivity bias in past and future episodic thinking: Relationship with anxiety, depression, and retrieval-induced forgetting

Positivity biases in autobiographical memory and episodic future thinking are considered important in mental wellbeing and are reduced in anxiety and depression. The inhibitory processes underlying retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) have been proposed to contribute to these biases. This investigatio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006) 2019-03, Vol.72 (3), p.508-522
Main Authors: Marsh, L, Edginton, T, Conway, MA, Loveday, C
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anxiety
Bias
Mental depression
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Summary:Positivity biases in autobiographical memory and episodic future thinking are considered important in mental wellbeing and are reduced in anxiety and depression. The inhibitory processes underlying retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) have been proposed to contribute to these biases. This investigation found reduced positivity in past and future thinking to be associated with reduced memory specificity alongside greater levels of anxiety, depression, and rumination. Most notably, however, RIF was found to significantly predict memory valence. This indicates that RIF may be important in maintaining such biases, facilitating the forgetting of negative memories when a positive item is actively retrieved.
ISSN:1747-0218
1747-0226
DOI:10.1177/1747021818758620