Passage Research Suggests That Individuals with Depression Experience Dysfunctions in Their

Passage
Research suggests that individuals with depression experience dysfunctions in their autobiographical memory.  For example, negative autobiographical memories are more easily recalled than positive memories, and memories encoded while experiencing a positive mood are more difficult to access while depressed.  In individuals with depression, rumination (repetitive negative thoughts) can also impede autobiographical memory retrieval.Studies have demonstrated that the Method of Loci (MoL) , a mnemonic strategy that pairs items to be remembered with well-known visuospatial locations (loci) , effectively improves retention and recall over time.  Given this previous research, experimenters hypothesized that training individuals with depression in the MoL technique would improve sustained retrieval of their positive autobiographical memories.  For this study, 125 individuals between ages 25 and 45 with a current diagnosis of depression were recruited (individuals with co-occurring psychological diagnoses were excluded) .  Phase 1 screened participants for normal memory function.  Participants were given a list of 25 three-letter nonsense words to memorize (eg, LAR, PAS, FUV) , and recall was tested immediately (no delay) , and again after 20 minutes, one hour, nine hours, 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours.  Those participants who demonstrated normal memory function (n = 122) were then randomly assigned to the MoL group (n = 61) or the control group (n = 61) for the next phase.During phase 2, the MoL group was trained to associate features of a positive autobiographical memory (eg, a marriage proposal) with a well-known route (eg, the route from home to work) .  All salient details of the positive memory were mentally associated with loci.  For example, one participant paired the restaurant table where he proposed to his wife with a fire hydrant he passes on his way to work.  The control group was not trained using any specific technique.  Both groups mentally rehearsed their chosen memory every day for one week.  After one week, both groups performed equally well at recalling their selected positive memory.  However, when a surprise recollection memory test was performed a month later, the MoL group performed at levels comparable to their first recollection test, while the control group exhibited significantly reduced recollection.
T. Dalgleish, L. Navrady, E. Bird, E. Hill, B. D. Dunn, and A.M. Golden ©2013 Association for Psychological Science; T. Dalgleish and A. Werner-Seidler ©2014 Elsevier
-This study assessed which of the following independent variables?

A) MoL versus no specific technique
B) Depression versus no depression
C) One-week recall versus one-month recall
D) Phase 1 recall versus phase 2 recall

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