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Evaluation ViewAttendees 2

Category: Cognitive Science/ Cognitive Processes

Symposium 87 - When is it Helpful to Revisit the Anxious Past? The Relevance of Symptom-Related Autobiographical Memories in Anxiety and Related Disorders

Saturday, November 18, 2023
2:30 PM – 4:00 PM PST
Location: Chelais (305), Level 3
CE: 1.5

Keywords: Change Process / Mechanisms, Cognitive Schemas / Beliefs, Anxiety
Level of Familiarity: Basic to Moderate
Recommended Readings: Moscovitch, D. A., Vidovic, V., Lenton-Brym, A. P., Dupasquier, J. R., Barber, K. C., Hudd, T., Zabara, N., & Romano, M. (2018). Autobiographical memory retrieval and appraisal in social anxiety disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 107, 106–116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2018.06.008,  

Zlomuzica, A., Dere, D., Machulska, A., Adolph, D., Dere, E., & Margraf, J. (2014). Episodic memories in anxiety disorders: Clinical impliations. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 8(131), 1-19. doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00131

,   Cili, S., & Stopa, L. (2015). Intrusive mental imagery in psychological disorders: Is the self the key to understanding maintenance? Frontiers in Psychiatry, 6(103), 1-5. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2015.00103,   Morina, N., Lancee, J., Arntz, A. (2017). Imagery rescripting as a clinical intervention for aversive memories: A meta-analysis. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 55, 6-15.,  

Eichstaedt, J. C., Kern, M. L., Yaden, D. B., Schwartz, H. A., Giorgi, S., Park, G., Hagan, C. A., Tobolsky, V. A., Smith, L. K., Buffone, A., Iwry, J., Seligman, M. E. P., & Ungar, L. H. (2021). Closed- and open-vocabulary approaches to text analysis: A review, quantitative comparison, and recommendations. Psychological Methods, 26(4), 398–427. https://doi.org/10.1037/met0000349

Anxiety and fear-based disorders are some of the most common mental disorders in the United States. Importantly, anxiety disorders are related to reduced self-reported quality of life as well as well-being (e.g., Cramer et al., 2005). Even with extensive research demonstrating the efficacy of treatments such as cognitive behavioral therapy (e.g., Hans & Hiller, 2013), limitations remain. Indeed, current nonresponse and relapse rates to CBT for anxiety disorders demonstrate that we still have substantial improvements to make (e.g., Loerinc et al., 2015; Levy et al., 2021). One potential intervention target that may contribute to further treatment gains is considering symptom-relevant autobiographical memories.

There is evidence to suggest that considering such memories may be a powerful intervention target. Theoretically, negative learning experiences have been incorporated into theories outlining the development and/or maintenance of anxiety and related disorders (e.g., Zinbarg et al., 2022). And empirically, considering social anxiety disorder (SAD) as an example, individuals with SAD often experience intrusive images during social interactions that can be linked back to negative memories (Moscovitch, 2016). These images often result in increased negative affect and negatively affect beliefs about the self, and thus may serve as a mechanistic target for treatment. Other studies have examined similar issues across other anxiety and related disorders and findings to date continue to support this potential treatment target, though more research is needed. Despite such findings, the dominant evidence-based treatments for such symptoms do not routinely assess for or target symptom-relevant autobiographical memories.

The goal of this symposium is to explore a range of studies that have investigated the role of symptom-relevant autobiographical memories for individuals with anxiety and related disorders. The first three presentations will focus on the prevalence, impact, and characteristics of these memories while the fourth and fifth speakers will discuss relevant intervention strategies. Our first speaker will present a novel study that investigated the prevalence and impact of symptom-relevant autobiographical memories in a treatment-seeking sample of individuals with various emotional disorders. Our second speaker will discuss a study that utilized advanced language analyses to explore whether language features of autobiographical memory narratives during the COVID-19 pandemic predict anxiety and depressive symptoms. Our third speaker will present a study that evaluated the effects of social anxiety and negative self-schemas on the recall and appraisal of either positive or negative social autobiographical memories. Our fourth speaker will discuss a study of a novel intervention strategy that asks participants to identify a negative autobiographical memory linked to maladaptive self-schemas and then reconstruct it with a positive outcome. Our final speaker will present findings from a recent study examining the utility of internet-based imagery rescripting (IR). Our discussant will consider the relevance of these findings for enhancing evidence-based treatments for anxiety and related disorders.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of the session, the learner will be able to:
  • Define symptom-relevant autobiographical memories.
  • Identify three ways that symptom-relevant autobiographical memories may be implicated in the maintenance of symptoms.
  • Describe two intervention strategies that target symptom-relevant autobiographical memories.
  • Goal: To understand the theoretical and empirical support for considering the mechanistic role of symptom-relevant autobiographical memories.
  • Goal: To consider how targeting symptom-relevant autobiographical memories may improve current evidence-based treatments.