Abstract
Previous studies have demonstrated that voluntary positive memory retrieval commonly leads to mood repair in the non-depressed population but not in depressed people, while it has been suggested that involuntary positive memory retrieval can repair the mood of depressed people. However, the difference in the mood repair effect between voluntary and involuntary positive memory retrieval on depressed people remains unclear from an experimental perspective, and thus, we examined this difference in a laboratory setting. After inducing negative mood in non-clinical participants with high and low depressive tendency (n = 48), they were asked to conduct a voluntary memory retrieval task or sound location task inducing involuntary memory retrieval. In this retrieval phase, participants retrieved memories of positive pictures that had been encoded in the laboratory. The results demonstrated that involuntary positive memory retrieval caused a more positive change in the mood of people with high depressive tendency compared to voluntary retrieval. These results suggest that involuntary positive memory retrieval contributes to the repair of depression.
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Notes
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Two participants were aware of the aim that this study focused on mood change. Therefore, we conducted the same analyses excluding them. The same results were obtained; only the main effect of time was significant for positive mood (F (1, 42) = 28.70, p < .001, η2p = .41) and, for negative mood, the main effect of time (F (1, 42) = 44.34, p < .001, η2p = .51) and the interaction between the retrieval group and time were significant (F (1, 42) = 5.02, p = .03, η2p = .11). Analysis of the simple main effect demonstrated that the involuntary memory retrieval group showed a higher negative score at post-induction than the voluntary retrieval group (F (1, 42) = 5.11, p = .03, η2p = .11).
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We conducted the same analyses excluding two participants who were aware of the aim of this study and the same results were obtained; only the interaction between the retrieval group and the depressive tendency group for positive mood was significant (F (1, 42) = 4.43, p = .04, η2p = .10). The analysis of the simple main effect demonstrated that high depressive tendency participants in the involuntary retrieval group improved their positive mood compared with those in the voluntary retrieval group (F (1, 42) = 5.24, p = .03, η2p = .11)
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This work was supported by the Center of Innovation Program from Japan Science and Technology Agency, JST.
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Hashimoto, J., Kanayama, N., Miyatani, M. et al. The effect of involuntary positive memory retrieval on mood repair of non-clinically depressed people. Curr Psychol 40, 4760–4769 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00418-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00418-3