Differential roles of resistance to proactive interference and suppression of prepotent responses in overgeneral memory.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Overgeneral memory (OGM), difficulty in retrieving specific autobiographical memories, is a robust phenomenon related to the onset and course of depressive and posttraumatic stress disorders. Inhibitory mechanisms are theorized to underlie OGM; however, empirical support for this link is equivocal. The current study examines the differential roles of two aspects of inhibitory control in association with OGM: suppression of prepotent responses and resistance to proactive interference (PI). Only resistance to PI was expected to be negatively related to OGM, whereby individuals with greater ability to resist PI would have reduced OGM.

METHOD: Participants (n = 49) completed a self-report measure of depressive symptoms and engaged in two tasks aimed at assessing resistance to PI and suppression of prepotent responses. Participants also completed a task assessing overgeneral autobiographical memory.

RESULTS: As hypothesized, resistance to PI, but not suppression of prepotent responses negatively predicted OGM above and beyond the influence of depressive symptoms.

LIMITATIONS: Because a double dissociation was not examined, we cannot address the potential independence of the submechanisms of inhibitory control that we assessed.

CONCLUSIONS: Results exemplify the differential associations of two components of inhibition and OGM, suggesting that resistance to PI, in particular, may contribute to the development and/or maintenance of OGM and associated depressive disorders. Directions for future research are discussed.