Specificity of autobiographical memory and mood disturbance in adolescents

The difficulty in retrieving specific memories to cue words on the autobiographical memory test has been found to be associated with a number of psychiatric disorders. This preliminary study extends the study of autobiographical memory in an adolescent population. Adolescents from a residential inpa...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cognition and emotion 2001-05, Vol.15 (3), p.321-331
Main Authors: Swales, Michaela A., Williams, J. Mark G., Wood, Pam
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescents
Autobiographical memory
Mood changes
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The difficulty in retrieving specific memories to cue words on the autobiographical memory test has been found to be associated with a number of psychiatric disorders. This preliminary study extends the study of autobiographical memory in an adolescent population. Adolescents from a residential inpatient facility completed the autobiographical memory test alongside measures of depression and hopelessness. Their data were compared with normative data collected from a school sample. The clinical group, who was more depressed and hopeless, was less specific in their response to cue words on the autobiographical memory test. This result is comparable to that found in adult clinical groups. Unusually for studies of autobiographical memory, a positive correlation was found between specificity, depression and hopelessness in the clinical group, with the more depressed and hopeless participants being more specific. (Original abstract - amended)
ISSN:0269-9931
1464-0600
DOI:10.1080/0269993004200132