Role of anxiety and brooding in specificity of autobiographical recall

Tendency to ruminate and anxiety are associated with altered alpha and beta oscillatory power dynamics during memory for contextual details

Rumination occurs when an individual becomes mentally stuck and cannot redirect attention away from an unwanted thought demonstrating cognitive inflexibility. Cognitive flexibility is important for various cognitive functions, including episodic memory. Trait rumination is a partial mediator in the relationship between depression and overgeneral episodic memory, suggesting that rumination may negatively influence memory for contextual details. Oscillations in the alpha (8-12 Hz) and beta (13-30 Hz) frequency bands are crucial for various cognitive functions (e.g., attention control and episodic memory) and may help to explain the relationship between trait rumination and memory for contextual details. Our study uses EEG recorded during a source memory task to assess how alpha and beta oscillations during memory for contextual details may change as a function of trait rumination, anxiety, and depression level (n = 43). The source memory task instructs participants to remember objects and their associated contextual details. Memory for contextual details is lessened for participants higher in trait rumination paired with higher trait anxiety. Oscillations were analyzed in posterior parietal/occipital regions. During encoding, an interaction of nonclinical depression level and rumination predicts higher alpha power for items that were later not successfully remembered. During test, depression and rumination interact and predict higher alpha power for both successful and unsuccessful memory. These results suggest that trait anxiety, depression, and rumination impact accuracy and alpha oscillatory dynamics during contextual memory via changes in attention control.

Negative Emotions and Job Burnout in News Media Workers: A Moderated Mediation Model of Rumination and Empathy

News media workers are in stressful and competitive professions susceptible to negative emotions. Although the relationship between negative emotions and job burnout has been evidenced in some professional fields, it has not yet been examined in the population of news media workers. Far few studies have revealed the mediating and moderating mechanism between negative emotions and job burnout. Based on Resource Allocation Theory and Theory of Compassion Fatigue, this study examined (a) the mediating role of rumination in the relationship between negative emotions and job burnout, (b) the moderating role of empathy in the direct and indirect effect of negative emotions on job burnout, and (c) the moderating role of gender in the direct effect of negative emotions on rumination. Two hundred and eleven Chinese news media workers filled out questionnaires regarding negative emotions, job burnout, rumination, and empathy. The results indicated that negative emotions were positively correlated with job burnout. Mediation analysis revealed that rumination partially mediated the association between negative emotions and job burnout. Moderated mediation analysis further indicated that empathy moderated the effect of negative emotions on rumination, with a high level of empathy strengthening the association between negative emotions and rumination; gender moderated the effect of negative emotions on rumination, with the association between negative emotions and rumination was stronger among males than females. These findings encourage to design psychological interventions to reduce rumination and express proper empathy in the face of stress or negative affective status to avoid job burnout among news media workers.

Psychometric Properties of the Chinese Version of the 10-Item Ruminative Response Scale Among Undergraduates and Depressive Patients

Objective: Rumination is considered as a key process in the mechanism of depression. Assessing rumination is important for both research and clinical practice. The Ruminative Response Scale (RRS) is a widely-used instrument to measure rumination. This study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of the Chinese 10-item Ruminative Response Scale (RRS-10) in a large sample of Chinese undergraduates and depressive patients. Methods: A total of 1,773 university students and 286 clinical patients with major depressive disorder finished the Chinese version of the RRS10, State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed to examine the two-factor structure (reflection and brooding) of the RRS-10. The correlations among RRS-10, STAI, and BDI were explored in two samples. In addition, the measurement invariance of the RRS-10 across gender, time, and groups with and without depressive symptoms were further investigated. The internal consistency and test-retest reliability were also evaluated. Results: Confirmatory Factor Analysis revealed that the two-factor structure of RRS-10 fitted reasonably both in undergraduates (CFI = 0.933, TLI = 0.905, RMSEA = 0.071, SRMR = 0.035) and depressive patients (CFI = 0.941, TLI = 0.910, RMSEA = 0.077, SRMR = 0.057). The results of the multi-group confirmatory factor analysis supported the full strict invariance across genders and across groups (undergraduates and depressive patients). The full strong invariance over time was also supported by MGCFA. Besides, the RRS-10 showed acceptable internal consistency and good stability. Conclusions: The RRS-10 has good reliability and validity in different samples and over time, which demonstrated that RRS-10 is a valid measurement instrument to assess rumination.

The Factor Structure of Cognitive Functioning in Cognitively Healthy Participants: a Meta-Analysis and Meta-Analysis of Individual Participant Data

Many neuropsychologists are of the opinion that the multitude of cognitive tests may be grouped into a much smaller number of cognitive domains. However, there is little consensus on how many domains exist, what these domains are, nor on which cognitive tests belong to which domain. This incertitude can be solved by factor analysis, provided that the analysis includes a broad range of cognitive tests that have been administered to a very large number of people. In this article, two such factor analyses were performed, each combining multiple studies. However, because it was not possible to obtain complete multivariate data on more than the most common test variables in the field, not all possible domains were examined here. The first analysis was a factor meta-analysis of correlation matrices combining data of 60,398 healthy participants from 52 studies. Several models from the literature were fitted, of which a version based on the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) model was found to describe the correlations better than the others. The second analysis was a factor analysis of the Advanced Neuropsychological Diagnostics Infrastructure (ANDI) database, combining scores of 11,881 participants from 54 Dutch and Belgian studies not included in the first meta-analysis. Again, the model fit was better for the CHC model than for other models. Therefore, we conclude that the CHC model best characterizes both cognitive domains and which test belongs to each domain. Therefore, although originally developed in the intelligence literature, the CHC model deserves more attention in neuropsychology.

Executive Functions, Episodic Autobiographical Memory, Problem-Solving Capacity, and Depression Proposal for a Structural Equations Model

The executive functions play an important role in storing and recovering autobiographical memories, especially episodic memories. These types of memories provide information about solutions and experiences from the past that can be utilized as examples in the present when seeking solutions to any problem. In addition, a close relationship between depression and the executive functions has been widely recognized. This study aims to elaborate a structural equations model that empirically supports the relationships among the executive functions, episodic autobiographical memory, and the adaptive capacity to solve problems, taking into account the depressed mood state. In all, 32 healthy elderly people, 32 patients with Parkinson disease, 32 with amnestic mild cognitive impairment, and 32 with Alzheimer disease were evaluated. Structural equation models were estimated to test the effects among the constructs. The final model shows adequate fit indexes, thus revealing that an individual's problem-solving capacity will depend on the capacity to access the episodic autobiographical memory, which in turn will depend on the maintenance of executive functioning. In a parallel way, the mood state, and specifically depression, will play a modulator role because when there is depressive symptomatology, some capacities that depend on executive control can be diminished.

Thinking about negative life events as a mediator between depression and fading affect bias

The current research examined the links between depressive symptomology and anxiety on the fading of affect associated with positive and negative autobiographical memories. Participants (N = 296) recalled and rated positive and negative events in terms of how pleasant or unpleasant they were at the time they occurred and at the time of event recollection. Multilevel mediation analyses identified evidence that higher levels of depressive symptoms were directly associated with lower affect fade for both negative and positive memories. Tests of indirect effects indicated that depressive symptoms were indirectly related to lower affect fade for negative (but not positive) autobiographical memories via the heightened tendency to think about negative (but not positive) memories. Anxiety was unrelated to affect fade both directly and indirectly. These results suggest that people higher in depressive symptoms retain more negative affect due to an increased likelihood of thinking about negative autobiographical events.