The Influence Of Emotional State And Emotion Regulation Strategy On Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical memory, a new hot field of memory studies, is a kind of memory that Individuals memory the event of their own lives. It has a relationship with self, emotions, goals, personal meaning and interaction. The emotional state and the use of emotion regulation of the individual can influence the generalization of autobiographical memory. It has been proved that the autobiographical memory of depressed patients has a over-generalized phenomenon. Therefore, In this study, using the AMT clue word tests as a research tool and taking the high school students depressed as subjects, we will mainly explore the characterisitics of autobiographical memory in the high school students depressed, as well as the effect of emotion and emotion regulation strategy on their autobiographical memory.This study is constituted by three mutually undertaked researchs, as follows:The first study:using SDS and BDI assessment questionnaire to filter out the normal group and the depressed group that every group has30students, and then use the AMT clue word tests to measure the autobiographical memory of60students, the results show that:fist, Induced by the positive and negative clue words, compared with the normal group, the scores of the specific memory of the depressed group in the clue word were lower than the normal group, autobiographical memory of the depressed high school students show an over-generalized phenomenon. Second, Induced by the positive and negative clue words, gender does not affect the specific memory of the depressed high school students on the clue words, but the scores on positive clue words are higher than the scores on negative clues word, the individuals are always tend to have higher scores on the negative clue words than on the positive clue words.The second study:Reassessed the emotional pictures that are selected from the IAPS to induce the seventy five depressed high school students with different emotions, and implement the AMT clue word tests, the results show that:fist, emotional pictures can effectively induce individuals emotional state. Second, there was a significant interaction between emotional state and the clue words. Emotional states impact the scores of the specific memory on positive clue words. When individuals are induced with positive emotional state, individuals have higher scores on the positive clue words, when induced with positive emotional state, individuals have lower scores on the positive clue words, showing an over-generalized phenomenon. The scores on the negative clue words are not influenced by emotional state. The scores of the specific memory on positive clue words in a different emotional state are always higher than the scores of on negative clue words.The last study:at the base of the second study, using the negative and neutral emotional pictures to evoke one hundred individuals’emotional state, and manipulating the emotion regulation instructions to groups (the group of using cognitive reappraisal, the group of using expression suppression, the group without using adjustment, the group with neutral pictures), and implement the AMT clue word tests, the results show that:fist, manipulating the emotion regulation instructions to regulate emotion is effective. Second, the emotion regulation strategies can affect the negative emotions that the depressed individuals experience, the negative emotional level that the group of using cognitive reappraisal experience are significantly lower than the group of using expression suppression and the group without using adjustment. Third, there was a significant interaction between groups and the clue words, but the main effect of them are significant. When induced with positive emotional state, the scores of the specific memory on positive clue words of the group of using expression suppression are lower than the group of using cognitive reappraisal. The scores of the specific memory on positive clue words in a different emotion regulated groups are always higher than the scores of on negative clue words.