A comparison of retrieval vantage perspective of positive and negative intrusive memories

Recalling distressing memories from a third-person, observer vantage perspective has been conceptualized as a form of avoidance of memory-related affect (McIsaac & Eich, 2004). The possibility that observer recall of positive events might similarly be linked to avoidance has not been explored. A mixed sample of undergraduate students and community members described a positive and negative intrusive memory and responded to items about features of each memory. Experiential avoidance was associated with a tendency to recall positive intrusive memories from an observer perspective, and this association approached significance for negative intrusive memories. For negative intrusions, field perspective recall was associated with greater memory-related distress. The opposite was true for positive intrusions: observer recall was linked to more distress. We also observed expected mood-congruent relationships: depression was associated with the frequency of negative but not positive intrusive memories, and there was a trend towards a relationship between depression and decreased vividness of positive memories. Finally, dysphoric participants reported less of a sense of reliving their positive intrusions than did their non-dysphoric counterparts. We speculate about the reasons for the direction of these effects and discuss the potential utility of therapeutic techniques that encourage patients to remember positive events from a field perspective.