Fredman Stein, K., Morys-Carter, W.L., & Hinkley, L. (2018). Rumination and impaired prospective memory. The Journal of General Psychology, doi: 10.1080/00221309.2018.1469464.
Prospective memory (PM), remembering to remember, is crucial to everyday functioning. Understanding factors associated with PM impairments is thus important. One likely factor is rumination: a common cognitive process comprising repetitive self-focused thoughts. We investigated whether rumination is associated with impaired PM, and whether any associated impairment is exacerbated with negative stimuli. A sentence-rating task with sentences varying in valence was used with embedded PM cues in a non-clinical sample ( N = 60). State rumination, two trait rumination subtypes (reflective pondering and brooding), and mood were measured in relation to PM cue detection and response times. Results showed that state rumination was associated with impaired PM cue detection and slower response times to PM cues embedded in negative sentences (not positive or neutral). Trait brooding (not reflective pondering) was associated with slower PM response times. These findings indicate that state rumination and trait brooding are associated with dissociable PM impairments.
PsychoPy version 1.83.01
Morys-Carter, W.L. & Fredman Stein, K. (2016, May 20). Prospective memory sentences [Computer software]. PsychoPy. https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/library-of-published-psychopy-experiments/27226/2
PM Sentences KS16.zip (46.6 KB)