Seeing with the mind's eye: how the scene changes with cognitive avoidance and emotion regulation difficulties

Autobiographical memory (AM) has certain qualities that change depending on mood, cognitive capacity, age, and organic brain function. One of those qualities, episodic detail, is studied extensively in the aging literature and in relation to different types of medial-temporal lobe distortions. On the other hand, AM specificity is highly investigated in mood and anxiety disorders. Additionally, phenomenological qualities of AM, such as vividness and vantage point, are influenced by neurological and psychiatric disorders. Although traditionally studied separately, these qualities seem to be regulated by the same underlying mechanisms which are similarly affected in both functional distorsions that accompany affective problems and structural damages that occur as a result of neurological disorders or healthy aging. The clinical science literature focuses on avoidance of negative affect as a mechanism affecting changes in memory characteristics, however, the transdiagnostic changes might be better explained by a core dysfunction that is observed in psychiatric problems more broadly. This study aimed to investigate difficulties with negative emotion regulation and avoidance in relation to AM characteristics. Data collected from 96 undergraduate students revealed that emotion regulation difficulties predicted increase in emotional details in both positive and negative memories. However, avoidance was not related to a shift in vantage point, number of episodic details or memory specificity during the recall of personal memories. These findings provide new insights into how subclinical levels of cognitive and affective processes are related to the experience of autobiographical remembering.