Materials and Apparatus

4.2.3.1. Emotional Words

Ten emotional words (5 positively valenced, 5 negatively valenced) that had been used in previous studies addressing autobiographical memory retrieval in psychiatric patients (e.g. Williams and Broadbent, 1986) were used in the current study to cue autobiographical memories. The five positive cues were '"''Happy", “Interested",

“Safe", “Successful" and “Surprised" and the five negative cues were "Clumsy", "Angry", "Hurt" (emotionally), "Lonely" and "Sorry". Two neutral words {"Bus"

and "Table ") were included as practice items.

4.2.3.2. Emotional Images

Ten emotional images (5 positively valenced, 5 negatively valenced), drawn from the International Affective Picture System {lAPS - Lang, Bradley & Cuthbert, 1997), were used during the current study to cue autobiographical memories. lAPS is a collection of photographic images of different emotional scenes that have been rated by 300 participants in terms of their affective valence on a 9-point scale {\=extremely unpleasant/negative, 5= neutral & 9—extremely pleasant/positive). The participants also rated how arousing the images were on a 9-point scale {\=not arousing and

9-extremely arousing). The images incorporated in the current study were matched in terms of their arousal ratings (positive p=4.7, SD=0.8; negative p=4.5, SD=0.7); t(8)=0.5, p>0.05. However, as expected the two sets of images differed significantly in terms of their valence ratings {positive p=7.4, SD=0.3; negative p=3.3, SD=0.8);

t(8)=10.6, p<0.05. The positive images (see appendix XI) presented during the study were "A loving couple” (male with female), "A family group” (mother, father & young child), "Granddad fishing with grandchild”, "a very happy woman on a sunny day, pouring water over her head” and "a group of teenage friends having fun at the beach The negative images (see appendix XII) presented during the study were "a couple arguing/fighting” (male upon female), "a young boy crying”, "mourners at a funeral”, "a boy failing a maths problem in front o f his classmates” and "a child curled up in the foetal position looking scared”. Two neutral images (see appendix XI) were also included as practice items these were "a man playing a guitar” and "a shadow o f someone cast onto a road”. The images were chosen by the author to represent themes/events that the participants were likely to have experienced. The suitability of the chosen stimuli was established in consultation with a second researcher (BD).

4.2.3.3. Emotional Facial Expressions

Eight grey-scale photographic images of different individuals portraying either happiness or sadness (four of each) were used during the current study to cue autobiographical memories (see appendix XIII). A young male and young female (in their mid twenties), and an older female and older male (late forties - early fifties) portrayed each expression. The faces were drawn from a set used in a study looking at emotion processing in healthy adults (Le Gal & Bruce, 1999). 70 undergraduate students (35 male, 35 female) rated the faces in terms of what emotion they considered each face to be displaying (a forced choice paradigm was employed in their study). The faces used in the current study all achieved over 75% subjective

agreement concerning the emotion portrayed. Two neutral faces (one male, one female) were also included as practice items.

4.2.3.4. Stimulus Presentation

During all three autobiographical memory tasks, an AppleMac PowerBook 3004 laptop computer loaded with the Superlab® program Version 1.5.7 (Cedrus Corporation, 1992, Phoenix, Arizona) was used to present the stimuli to the participants one at a time (in a random order).

4.2.3.5. Response Measurement

A stopwatch was used to record the time taken by the participants to retrieve specific autobiographical memories. A Sony audiocassette recorder (with an external microphone) was used record the details of the memories retrieved by the participants to the different cues. Printed record sheets were also used to document the central details of the memories, to note the retrieval times for each memory, and to record the pleasantness rating (see below) assigned by the participants to each memory they retrieved.

4.2.3.6. Pleasantness Rating

A five-point pleasantness rating scale was printed in 36-point bold type on an A4 sheet. The scale was anchored at one end (nearest the one) with the words extremely unpleasant and at the other end (nearest the five) with the words extremely pleasant.

The scale was designed to allow the participants to rate the memories they retrieved in terms of how pleasant or unpleasant they considered them to be.

4.2,4. Procedure

The procedure was identical for all three of the autobiographical memory tests. The participants were presented with memory cues (either words, images or faces) one at a time via the computer screen, and were asked to retrieve a specific memory of an event from their past that each cue brought to mind. A specific memory was defined as "a memory o f an event that occurred at a specific time and place, and that lasted less than a day Examples of specific memories were given in the instructions prior to all three ABM tests, e.g. "in response to the cue word Boat, you might retrieve a memory of a ferry trip you took to France when you were at school, rather than I used to play with toy boats when I was a kid”. The participants were not restricted in terms of the period of their lives firom which they could recall memories. Furthermore, they were instructed that the events they retrieved could be trivial or important. Once a cue had appeared on the screen it remained in view of the participant until they retrieved a memory. If the participant failed to retrieve a memory within 30 seconds then it was coded as an omission and the next cue was presented. However, if the participants indicated that they had retrieved a memory (by saying “Yes” or “OK”) then the experimenter stopped the stopwatch, noted the time and recorded the basic details of the memory (on audiotape and in writing on the response sheet). If the participant had retrieved a specific ABM they were asked to rate the memory in terms of how pleasant they considered it to be (using the rating scale provided). However, if the memory they had retrieved was not specific the experimenter prompted them with

"Can you give me a specific example - one single event?” The stopwatch was restarted and timing continued until the participant retrieved a specific memory. This process was repeated until a specific memory was retrieved or until the time on the stopwatch reached 30 seconds. Prior to each of the three ABM tests the participants

were presented with a summary of the instructions and two practice stimuli in order to ensure that they understood their task. The participants were also instructed to provide a different memory for each cue (word, face or image) that they viewed during the study. Once all three ABM tests had been completed the participants were required to rate their recent mood on the 21-item BDI and the HADS. Finally, they were asked to complete the NART.