Abstract
The present study investigated the impact of depressive rumination on encoding style using the item-cued directed forgetting procedure. High dysphoric (N = 40) and low dysphoric (N = 40) students were randomly allocated to either a rumination or distraction induction. Participants were shown intermixed negative, positive, and neutral words on a computer screen that were followed by instructions to remember or forget each word. High dysphoric participants in both the rumination and distraction conditions exhibited standard directed forgetting effects; i.e., better recall of to-be-remembered than to-be-forgotten words, for all word types. These findings do not support the proposal that rumination enhances the encoding of negative information in high dysphoric participants. Findings are discussed with reference to the contribution of retrieval processes, and with consideration of the application of the directed forgetting paradigm to affective disorders.
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Notes
Using Cohen’s formula, power for this design is estimated to be 87%, entering the parameters of 20 participants per group, effect size at 1.0 (large), and alpha at P = .05 (effect size based on those observed by Moulds & Bryant, 2002).
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This research was supported by a grant from the Australian Research Council awarded to the second author. We are grateful to Susannah Starr for her assistance with data collection.
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Wong, A.C.M., Moulds, M.L. Depressive Rumination and Directed Forgetting: An Examination of Encoding Style. Cogn Ther Res 32, 1–10 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-006-9107-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-006-9107-9