Reducing the stickiness of negative memory retrieval through positive memory training in adolescents.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Individuals at risk for depression exhibit a decreased ability to disengage from negative memory retrieval during times of mental distress, partly because they have difficulty retrieving positive memories to repair sad mood. In this study, we tested whether this persistent tendency for negative memory retrieval could be reduced in adolescents through repeated practice to retrieve positive autobiographical memories, namely Positive Memory Specificity Training (PMST). Further, we examined the impact of this intervention on secondary outcomes, including depressive symptoms, emotion regulation strategies, and fear of positive emotions. METHODS: Adolescents (n = 68) between 16 and 18 years old were randomly allocated to either PMST or bogus control training. Persistent negative memory retrieval was assessed following the training using a behavioral decision-making task (Emotional Reversal Learning Task). Additionally, participants completed self-report measurements (e.g., depressive symptoms) before and two weeks after the training. RESULTS: We found preliminary supportive evidence for a significant training effect such that adolescents following PMST showed less persistence in negative memory retrieval compared to those in the control group. Only for anhedonia a significant training effect was found, indicating a possible adverse effect of the intervention. LIMITATIONS: The primary outcome was assessed only at post-intervention to prevent a potential learning effect due to repeated measurements. We cannot exclude the possibility that baseline individual differences contaminated our results. To examine possible adverse effects of PMST, larger sample are needed. CONCLUSIONS: PMST may help to reduce persistent negative memory retrieval in adolescents. Recommendations for future studies are addressed.

Does repeatedly reporting positive or negative emotions in daily life have an impact on the level of emotional experiences and depressive symptoms over time?

The extent to which people are aware of their emotional experiences, label them and communicate them to the outside world are considered to impact emotional experience itself and potentially people's depressive symptom levels. All of these aspects are important elements of one of the most common methods to study and measure emotions in the context of daily life, the so-called experience sampling method (ESM). A straightforward question that arises when using this method is whether participating in ESM may bring about changes in the momentary emotional self-reports of the people engaging in it, thereby effectively influencing that what it intends to measure; emotional experience over time, and whether this would relate to average levels of depressive symptoms. To examine these questions, we conducted a 7-day ESM study in which 90 participants were randomly assigned to repeatedly report either positive emotions only, negative emotions only or non-emotional internal states only, course using smartphones. Participants also completed pre-, post- and follow-up measurements of levels of depressive symptoms. Results showed no significant impact on self-reported momentary emotions, respective to their condition, over time nor on average levels of depressive symptoms across groups. These findings suggest that the repeated assessment of emotions in daily life, over the course of seven days, does not impact their emotional experience over time nor levels of depressive symptoms.