Narration and Vividness as Measures of Event-Specificity in Autobiographical Memory

Narrativity and Referential Activity Predict Episodic Memory Strength in Autobiographical Memories

Narrativity has been proposed as an indicator of episodic memory strength when people discuss their past (Nelson and Horowitz in Discourse Processes 31:307-324, 2001. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15326950dp31-3_5 ). Referential Activity, the extent to which words convey a speaker's experience of being present in the event being described, has been independently hypothesized to indicate episodic memory strength (Maskit in J Psycholinguist Res, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-021-09761-8 ). These hypotheses are tested using a linguistic measure of narrativity and a computerized measure of referential activity to predict previous independent ratings of episodic memory strength that used the Levine et al. (Psychol Aging 17(4):677-689, 2002. https://doi.org/10.1037//0882-7974.17.4.677 ) measure of internal details in retold personal memories provided by Schacter (Addis et al. in Psychol Sci 19(1):33-41, 2008. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02043.x ). Raters scored narrativity on four brief near and far past memories elicited from 32 subjects, using Nelson's narrative temporal sequence method based on Labov's (J Narrat Life Hist 7(1-4):395-415, 1997. https://doi.org/10.1075/jnlh.7.49som ) analysis of spoken narratives of personal experience; computerized weighted scores of referential activity (WRAD) were obtained on these same 128 memories. Data analysis showed that narrative temporal sequences predict internal details and WRAD predict internal details. Adding WRAD to narrative temporal sequences improved the prediction of internal details.

Specificity of Future Thinking in Depression: A Meta-Analysis

Reduced specificity of autobiographical memory has been well established in depression, but whether this overgenerality extends to future thinking has not been the focus of a meta-analysis. Following a preregistered protocol, we searched six electronic databases, Google Scholar, and personal libraries and contacted authors in the field for studies matching search terms related to depression, future thinking, and specificity. We reduced an initial 7,332 results to 46 included studies, with 89 effect sizes and 4,813 total participants. Random-effects meta-analytic modeling revealed a small but robust correlation between reduced future specificity and higher levels of depression (r = -.13, p < .001). Of the 11 moderator variables examined, the most striking effects were related to the emotional valence of future thinking (p < .001) and the sex of participants (p = .025). Namely, depression was linked to reduced specificity for positive (but not negative or neutral) future thinking, and the relationship was stronger in samples with a higher proportion of males. This meta-analysis contributes to our understanding of how prospection is altered in depression and dysphoria and, by revealing areas where current evidence is inconclusive, highlights key avenues for future research.

How Do I Narrate My Marriage: The Relationship Between Attachment Orientation and Quality of Autobiographical Memory

Attachment orientations play important roles in the generation of emotional autobiographical memory (AM). However, little research has considered the quality of autographical narratives, which may reflect the structure and content of internal working models (IWMs) of attachment. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the relationship between attachment orientations and narrative quality of marriage-related autobiographical memories. Ninety-four married adults were asked to retrieve two episodes of emotional autobiographical memories. The coherence and vividness of their narratives were then coded. Results indicated that adults who were highly avoidant were more likely to present their memories in a less coherent way and to describe negative memories with more perceptual details. In contrast, attachment anxiety was associated with lower vividness of negative memories. The current findings suggest that an attachment schematic-processing strategy was used in narrating the attachment-related experiences.

The form of the story: Measuring formal aspects of narrative activity in psychotherapy

OBJECTIVE

We ask which are the clinically relevant qualities of narratives in psychotherapy and how they can be measured.

METHOD

On the background of psychoanalytic assumptions and narrative theory, we propose to measure formal narrative processes which stay close to the linguistic surface, because these escape conscious control.

RESULTS

We propose five aspects of narratives to be especially sensitive to distortions and therefore prone to change in successful therapies: (1) The actual chronological, stepwise narrating of events, (2) the intentional structuring of events, or emplotment, (3) the immediate evaluation, (4) the reflected interpretation of events, and finally (5) the consistency and completeness of the narrative. For each aspect we discuss ways to measure them. Finally the aspects are illustrated with excerpts from a series of diagnostic interviews.

DISCUSSION

Implications for the analysis of the co-narrative role of the therapist are suggested.

Emotional expressiveness and avoidance in narratives of unaccompanied refugee minors

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to examine a cohort of unaccompanied refugee minors (URMs) by means of psycholinguistic methods in order to obtain a more subtle picture of their degree of traumatization.

METHODS

Twenty-eight participants were included in the Stress-Inducing Speech Task (SIST) consisting of a free association (FA) and a stress (STR) condition. Narratives were examined by means of (1) quantitative parameters (word count); (2) psycholinguistic variables (temporal junctures, TJs), narrative structure, referential activity (RA)-a measure of emotional expressivity; and (3) content analysis ratings.

RESULTS

Word count was significantly lower than in age-matched norms. In the FA condition, TJs were lower, but in the STR condition, rates were comparable. RA was significantly higher in both conditions. Content analysis ratings showed that the experiences described by these youths were potentially traumatic in nature.

CONCLUSIONS

This pattern of narrative shows a mixture of fulfilling the task demand, while containing an emotionally charged narrative. Narrative structure was absent in the FA condition, but preserved in the STR condition, as URMs struggled with the description of non-normative events. This indicates that these youths have not yet emotionally dealt with and fully integrated their trauma experiences.

Exploring telicity and transitivity in primordial thought language and body boundary imagery

Linguistics research on 'unconscious knowledge' related to the right brain-hemisphere represents a shift from the prevalent scientific investigation of the linguistic processes of grammatical structures associated with the dominant 'verbal' left brain-hemisphere. This study explores the relationship among primordial thought language, body boundary awareness and syntactic features--i.e., telicity, perfectivity and transitivity-in autobiographical narratives of everyday and dream memories. The results showed that event descriptions with atelic predicates and intransitive structures were more frequent in dream recall than in narratives of everyday memories. Primordial thought language and body boundary awareness, however, decreased with atelic predicates and transitive structures, which might indicate both the tendency of events to describe result states, such as achievements and accomplishments, as a means to bring about an unconscious wish fulfilment and the emphasis on event arguments to be realised without the inclusion of an external object. In narratives of everyday memories, penetration imagery increased with imperfective verb forms and decreased with perfective verb forms, and emotion lexis increased with atelic predicates and transitive structures, but not in dream memories.

Treatment notes: objective measures of language style point to clinical insights

Application of a computerized text analysis procedure is proposed that has the potential for use by psychoanalytic and psychodynamic clinicians: the systematic examination of linguistic style as reflected by clinicians in their ongoing process and case notes, which are ubiquitous in the mental health field. The studies reported here are, as far as is known, the first attempts to study treatment notes systematically using such procedures. Linguistic measures are used to track the trajectory of the clinical process throughout the treatment in two contrasting cases, one rated successful, the other not. The computerized linguistic analysis used here focuses on two analytically relevant linguistic variables: Mean High Referential Activity (MHW), a measure of the degree to which language is connected to emotional processing, and Reflection (REF), the use of words referring to logical functions. Changes in the relative position of these measures indicate nodal points in the treatment that might be analytically or therapeutically problematic, and that might be overlooked in a solely clinical reading. The analyst's activity as reported in notes during such nodal periods is clinically examined to see how it may have affected the course of the analysis. This method has the potential for use in ongoing treatments, and may help clinicians refine their interventions.

Linguistic measures of the referential process in psychodynamic treatment: the English and Italian versions

The referential process is defined in the context of Bucci's multiple code theory as the process by which nonverbal experience is connected to language. The English computerized measures of the referential process, which have been applied in psychotherapy research, include the Weighted Referential Activity Dictionary (WRAD), and measures of Reflection, Affect and Disfluency. This paper presents the development of the Italian version of the IWRAD by modeling Italian texts scored by judges, and shows the application of the IWRAD and other Italian measures in three psychodynamic treatments evaluated for personality change using the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure (SWAP-200). Clinical predictions based on applications of the English measures were supported.

Objective measures of subjective experience: the use of therapist notes in process-outcome research

Computerized linguistic measures of emotional engagement, and reflective and affective language, previously applied to session transcripts, were applied to notes of 14 treatments by candidates under supervision at the New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, covering the five decades from the 1950s to the 1990s. The findings indicate a strong relationship between candidates' subjective experience as represented unintentionally in the linguistic style of their case notes and the effectiveness of their clinical work. The treatments were evaluated for effectiveness by experienced clinicians using the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) and the Psychodynamic Functioning Scales of Høglend and colleagues; a Composite Clinical Effectiveness (CCE) measure was constructed based on level and change in these measures. The Mean High Weighted Referential Activity Dictionary (MHW), a computerized measure of emotional engagement developed in the framework of Bucci's theory of multiple coding and the referential process, showed a positive correlation of .73 with CCE. The Hostility subcategory of the Negative Affect Dictionary (ANH) showed a negative correlation, -.48, with CCE. In a multiple regression analysis, these two variables accounted for over three-quarters of the variance in the CCE. Implications of the findings for process/outcome research and supervision and evaluation of trainees are discussed.

Listening for avoidance: narrative form and defensiveness in adolescent memories

We describe a linguistic clue to speakers' states of mind that has utility for psychotherapists and counselors, and summarize the theoretical and empirical support for using this clue in clinical practice. Specifically, we posit that the degree to which people relate stressful episodes from their lives as a chronological sequence of events is negatively associated with the extent to which they self-protectively avoid experiencing negative affect. We review relevant discussions and findings from linguistics and psychology, and then present a new study that replicates previous research. In this study of the relationship between defensive avoidance and the narrative structure of stressful memories in non-clinical adolescents, 168 high school students spoke for 10 min into a tape recorder about "your most stressful life event." Transcribed interviews were analyzed for narrative immersion, the extent to which the past is retold in chronological order, using a method adopted from Labov and Waletzky. A negative association was found between narrative immersion and avoidance (as operationalized by scores on the Marlowe Crowne Social Desirability Scale). Listening for narrative immersion in the speech of clients discussing past stressful times may therefore represent a useful tool in exploring defensive avoidance of stressful episodic memories.

Posttraumatic stress disorder following traumatic injury: narratives as unconscious indicators of psychopathology

Current conventional assessment methodologies used to diagnose posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) rely heavily on symptom counts obtained from clinical interviews or self-report questionnaires. Such measures may underestimate the impact of traumatic events, particularly in individuals who deny or repress emotional distress. This case report illustrates the use of two methods of narrative analysis to assess unconscious representations of PTSD. Linguistic analysis and a computerized analysis of referential activity were able to capture unconscious aspects of the traumatic experience.