The mediating role of emotion regulation on the relationship between memory bias and depressive symptoms

Objective: This research aims to investigate the mediating effect of emotion regulation strategies on the predictive impact of negatively processed information in memory on depressive symptoms using the Directed Forgetting (DF) paradigm. Method: The sample of this research consisted of 162 participants, with 100 (61.7%) females and 62 (38.3%) males. The age range of the participants was between 18 and 56 years, with a mean age of 23.69±5.23 years. The average total duration of education for participants was 16.10±2.34 years. The Directed Forgetting paradigm was employed to measure intentional forgetting of participants using positive, negative, and neutral words. The experiment was conducted online via pavlovia.org. All participants were administered the Socio-Demographic and Other Information Form, Beck Depression Inventory, Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and Ruminative Thought Style Scale through forms.gle. Results: The words directed as remember were recalled more than words directed as forget. Emotional words were recalled more than neutral words. In the forget condition, negative words were recalled more than positive and neutral words. A positive and significant relationship was found between negative words directed as forget and depressive symptoms. The findings of our study indicate that as the utilization of cognitive reappraisal in emotion regulation increased, the level of depressive symptoms decreased. However, an increase in observed ruminative thoughts in emotion regulation predicted an increase in depressive symptom levels. The factors that most strongly explained the variance in depressive symptoms were rumination and cognitive reappraisal. The mediating effect of emotion regulation between DF scores and depressive symptoms could not be established. Conclusion: Our study, by measuring memory biases in individuals exhibiting depressive tendencies without experiencing depressive disorders, examined the risk factors of depression. The study found that the impact of emotion regulation on depressive tendencies was stronger and more consistent than memory biases.