Thinking Styles and Problem-Solving Skills

Background

Autobiographical memory (AM) refers to a person’s store of prior life events and more generalised self-relevant knowledge. Retrieval of AMs has been previously found to enhance both positive (e.g., self-efficacy and acceptance, increase feelings of happiness when stressed) and negative emotional experiences (e.g., low mood, anxiety). Research has focused primarily on the relationship between depression and retrieval styles characterised by reduced AM specificity, i.e. the reduced recall of specific memories when prompted (e.g. I was sad at my birthday party last year) and a tendency to recall general memories instead (e.g. I hate birthdays). Evidence suggests that a retrieval style characterised by reduced AM specificity predicts the course of depressive symptoms (Hallford et al., 2021) and even predicts the onset of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) in adolescents (Rawal & Rice, 2012). The mechanisms by which reduced AM specificity may result in depression are still being explored, but there is some indications that it may impair skills that are important for emotional wellbeing, such as problem-solving skills. Impairments in problem-solving skills are common in people experiencing depression, and a reduced ability to generate novel and effective solutions increases distress and hopelessness (Arie et al., 2008). Reduced AM specificity is associated with problem-solving deficits (Arie et al., 2008; Beaman et al., 2007), and it has been hypothesized that problem-solving strategies may be impaired when a person is unable to retrieve the detailed information contained in specific autobiographical memories (Williams et al., 1996). Despite this, the few direct experiments exploring a causal relationship between AM specificity and problem-solving show mixed findings, with induction procedures that encourage AM specificity often failing to produce improvements in problem-solving (e.g. Hallford et al., 2022, Duff et al., 2024). This indicates that promoting AM specificity alone may not translate into improved problem-solving skills. More recent research indicates reduced AM specificity may be one component of a larger reduced ability to flexibility and deliberately retrieve different autobiographical memory types, termed reduced AM flexibility (Hitchcock et al., 2019). Effective problem solving likely requires a number of different sources of information, and including information contained in both specific and categoric memory types (Dritschel et al., 2014; Hitchcock et al., 2017). Accessing both these types of memories is a strength of AM flexibility, and consistent with this, training a more flexible AM retrieval style in clinical trials has been associated with improved problem-solving skills (Hitchcock et al., 2017).

Research Questions / Hypotheses

We hypothesise a significant effect of induction on the effectiveness of problem solving.

Specifically,

1. Both the autobiographical memory flexibility induction and the specificity induction will increase effectiveness of problem solving, relative to a control induction.
2. Participants completing the memory flexibility induction will demonstrate significantly higher effectiveness of problem solving relative to a specificity induction procedure.

Participants

460 REP participants completed the study. Participants outside the ages of 16-25 and who did not complete all components of the study were excluded from analysis.

Methods

Participants received a plain language statement and provided consent before completing the sMFQ and demographics questionnaires. Participants then underwent one of three induction procedures. The Flexibility Induction comprised participants reporting a series of alternating specific and categoric memories in response to prompt words, the Specificity Induction comprised asking participants to report a series of specific memories to the same prompt words, and the Control induction comprised asking participants to complete a series of simple addition and subtraction sums (Control Induction). Each induction procedure took place over an approximately 15-minute period. After completing the induction procedures, participants then completed the second mood check (to determine if the induction procedures affected mood), before completing between two and four problems from the Means End Problem-Solving (MEPS) tasks. Participants then completed the Memory Use Check, before concluding the experiment by completing the Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT).

Results

Our primary analysis was a mixed 2 (Time: pre induction, post induction) x 3 (Induction condition: Specificity, flexibility, control) ANOVA predicting participants perceived likelihood of a positive outcome for their worrisome event (i.e., problem solving effectiveness, per Jing et al., 2016). Planned comparisons will determine if people receiving the mathematical induction differ from those receiving the specificity and flexibility inductions (hypothesis 1), and whether those receiving the specificity and flexibility inductions differ from each other (hypothesis 2). Results: Neither hypothesis was supported.

Implications

These results suggest that brief engagement with autobiographical memory retrieval tasks are ineffective at boosting problem solving skills in the immediate term. These results are in line with the literature that reports a weak or non-significant relationship between inductions of autobiographical memory specificity and problem solving, and extend these results to autobiographical memory flexibility as well. These results are planned to be communicated through a journal article.