Mental time travel (MTT) refers to an individual’s ability to mentally travel through subjective time, autonoetically re-experiencing past events under the form of autobiographical memories (past MTT), and pre-experiencing events as future autobiographical representations (future MTT). MTT can occur voluntarily, whereby a past/future autobiographical event is subjectively experienced as an intended occurrence, or involuntarily, wherein such an event is subjectively experienced as an unintended outcome of which the individual is aware. Studies investigating MTT’s characteristics in dysphoria and depression show that dysphoric and depressed individuals produce more overgeneral and negative MTT events when compared to control groups. However, existing research has been limited to past and voluntary MTT events, with few studies investigating involuntary MTT and future MTT in dysphoria and depression. The overarching aim of the present research was to compare the phenomenological characteristics of MTT in dysphoric individuals vs. normal mood individuals (Study 1), and in clinically depressed individuals vs. never-depressed individuals (Study 2), with the purpose of furthering existing knowledge on MTT and its relation with dysphoria and Major Depressive Disorder. This aim was addressed by conducting two studies, using a 2 x (2 x 2) mixed-factorial design, with temporality (past vs. future events) and type of retrieval (voluntary vs. involuntary events) as within-subjects independent variables, and participant group as a between-subjects variable. In Study 1, Portuguese university students were categorised into a dysphoric (n=17) or a normal mood group (n=39) depending on their score on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-IA) – cutoff point (≥ 10). In Study 2, clinically diagnosed depressed patients (n=32) were recruited from a Portuguese hospital and matched for age and gender with never-depressed control participants (n=32) recruited from the community. The dependent variables tested were: level of spatiotemporal specificity, self-relevance, mood and physical impact, valence, and visual perspective of the MTT events produced. A diary methodology was used in both studies, with an open-ended time period that lasted for a minimum of two weeks, for participants to record their MTT events and grade them on the above mentioned variables using Likert-type ratings. Between seven and fourteen MTT events were produced for each of the four MTT conditions (past voluntary, past involuntary, future voluntary, future involuntary). Results showed that when compared to their respective control groups, depressed, but not dysphoric participants, exhibited a clear influence of mood on several of the phenomenological characteristics of MTT. In Study 1 there were no statistically significant differences in the specificity, negative valence, and mood/physical impact of the MTT events produced by dysphoric and normal mood participants. On the contrary, in Study 2, results partially supported a lower specificity and fully supported a greater negativity and mood/physical impact of MTT events in depressed individuals compared with never-depressed participants. Both studies supported the greater self-relevance of voluntary MTT events and partially supported the hypothesised effect of type of retrieval in specificity. These were the first studies to directly compare past and future, voluntary and involuntary MTT events in dysphoric and depressed individuals, addressing existing gaps in the literature. The key limitation is the relatively small sample size of both studies, however each participant was comprehensively assessed for at least two weeks, providing a rich set of reliable data. Despite limitations, this thesis provides novel pilot findings that help understand the similarities and differences between involuntary and voluntary, past and future MTT, as well as providing new information regarding the possible role of MTT in dysphoria and depression.

Syftet med studien var att testa om det fanns åldersgruppsskillnader, könsskillnader, samt om ålder och kön hade interaktionseffekter när det gäller emotionell intelligens  och autobiografiskt minne mellan manliga (n=106) och kvinnliga (n=231)studenter på Örebro Universitet är från 18 till 45 år(n=299). Data samlades via emotionell intelligensens enkätformulär Andrew m.fl. (2010) och Waldfogel (1948) autobiografiska minnens test. Det fanns inga könsskillnader och åldersgruppsskillnader i total emotionell intelligens, men det fanns interaktion mellan kön och ålder det vill säga att ålder och kön hade effekter på varandra. Det fanns könsskillnader i totala autobiografiska minnen då flera kvinnor rapporterade autobiografiska minnen än män, men det fanns inga åldersgruppsskillnader. Ålder och kön hade inte effekter på varandra när det gäller autobiografiska minnen.  Det fanns inga skillnader mellan grupperna som rapporterade låg, medel och hög autobiografiskt minne och emotionell intelligens. / The purpose of this study was to test whether there were age differences, gender differences, and if the age and gender had interaction effect on each other when it comes to groups’ emotional intelligence and autobiographical memories. The participants were male (n = 106), women (n = 231) students at Örebro University who were from 18 to 45 years (n = 299). The students responded to emotional intelligence, short version of the Andrew et al. (2010) and Waldfogel (1948) autobiographical memories test. There were no gender differences and age differences in overall emotional intelligence, but there was an interaction between gender and age meaning that gender and age had effects on each other when it comes to students' emotional intelligences. There were gender differences in the overall autobiographical memories meaning that women reported several autobiographical memories than men in the study, but there were no age differences. Age and gender had no effects on each other in terms of autobiographical memories. There were no differences in autobiographical memories among those who reported low, medium and high emotional intelligence. There were no differences in emotional intelligence between those who reported low, medium and high autobiographical memories.

[pt] O presente trabalho investiga preditores clínicos de incapacidade e especificidade episódica da memória autobiográfica no Transtorno Bipolar (TB). Além disso, investiga a relação entre incapacidade e insight nesses indivíduos. Os resultados destacam o impacto da depressão e o papel generalizado da perda de insight no TB, indicando que o insight pode levar ao aumento da incapacidade e reforça a associação entre sintomas depressivos e incapacidade, o que tem sido consistentemente relatado na literatura. Além disso, os resultados deste estudo indicam que sintomas mais graves de depressão, maior nível de ideação suicida e menor gravidade da doença atuam como preditores de prejuízos na habilidade de recordação de detalhes autobiográficos no TB. Preditores clínicos são frequentemente usados na prática clínica para identificar pacientes em risco de resultados adversos. Portanto, esta pesquisa visa contribuir para o avanço da compreensão da doença com relevância direta para avaliação clínica e possíveis intervenções. / [en] The current work explores clinical predictors of disability and autobiographical memory episodic specificity in bipolar disorder (BD). In addition, it investigates the relationship between disability and insight in this disease The results highlight the impact of depression and pervasive role of loss of insight in BD, indicating that it may also lead to increased disability and reinforces the association between depressive symptoms and disability, which has been consistently reported in literature. Additionally, the results of this study indicate that more severe symptoms of depression, higher level of suicidal ideation and lower illness severity act as predictors of impaired recall of specific autobiographical details in BD. Clinical predictors are frequently used in clinical practice to identify patients at risk of adverse outcomes. Therefore, this research aimed at contributing to advance the understanding of the disease with direct relevance for clinical assessment and possible interventions.

Le développement professionnel des enseignants-débutants est étudié au travers des souvenirs de leurs premières expériences professionnelles et de la dynamique des relations qui s’établit entre ces souvenirs et les croyances d’auto-efficacité. Ces croyances sont appréhendées par une mesure du sentiment d’efficacité personnelle, plus précisément, une échelle a été construite puis validée dans le domaine de l’enseignement.Deux objectifs sont poursuivis. Le premier cherche à appréhender les caractéristiques des souvenirs des premières expériences professionnelles d’enseignants-stagiaires au début de leur formation initiale. Il s’agit de recueillir et d’étudier les souvenirs d’expériences professionnelles vécues durant les premiers stages et de percevoir si une relation s’établit entre ces souvenirs et le sentiment d’auto-efficacité sur le domaine professionnel. Le second objectif est d'examiner plus avant les relations entre le sentiment d’efficacité personnelle et les caractéristiques qualitatives et quantitatives des premiers souvenirs professionnels en tentant d'en saisir la dynamique.L’analyse des données recueillies au cours de cinq études fait ressortir certains invariants caractéristiques des souvenirs relevés. Ces derniers sont précis, positifs et concernent essentiellement des expériences liées à la mise en œuvre des séances et à la gestion des relations. De plus, les souvenirs participeraient à la construction des croyances d’efficacité et celles-ci, en retour influeraient sur la mise en mémoire des expériences professionnelles. Ces mécanismes sociocognitifs sous-jacents semblent concourir au développement professionnel, et notamment à l’identité professionnelle, des enseignants-débutants. / The professional development of novice teachers is studied through the memories of their first professional experiences and dynamics of relations established between these memories and self-efficacy beliefs. These beliefs are grasped by measuring self-efficacy, more precisely, a scale was constructed and validated in the field of education.Two goals are pursued. The first one seeks to reveal the characteristics of the memories of the first professional experiences of student teachers at the beginning of their initial training. This is to collect and study the memories of professional experiences during the early stages and perceive whether a relationship is established between these memories and feelings of self-efficacy on the professional field. The second objective is to explore further the relationship between the self-efficacy and the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the first professional memories by trying to understand the dynamics.The analysis of the data collected during five studies highlighted some invariant features concerning memories. These are accurate, positive and mainly concern experiences related to the implementation of teaching sessions and relationship management. Moreover, the memories would participate in the construction of efficacy beliefs and these in return would affect the storing of professional experience. These sociocognitive underlying mechanisms seem to contribute to the professional development, particularly in the professional identity of novice teachers.

[pt] A presente dissertação tem como objetivo explorar a conexão entre memórias autobiográficas (MA) e imagética mental (IM) através de uma revisão sistemática e um estudo empírico. A presente revisão investiga o papel da AM e MI como procedimentos de indução de humor (PIH). Os resultados em geral sugerem que uma variedade de pistas tem sido usada para evocar MA ou IM. Verificou-se também que poucos estudos relataram resultados estatísticos sobre a eficácia dos métodos, controle dos efeitos de demanda ou empregaram medidas fisiológicas da emoção. Recomenda-se um trabalho adicional para investigar as implicações dessas questões metodológicas. O estudo empírico explorou os efeitos das tarefas IM (positivo ou neutro) sobre a MA de adultos jovens saudáveis. Na Sessão 1, os participantes se lembraram de um evento triste. Dependendo do grupo, eles deveriam imaginar um cenário alternativo positivo ou neutro para a memória. Duas semanas mais tarde, na Sessão 2, eles tiveram que completar a mesma tarefa de memória. Os resultados indicam que os PIHs foram eficazes, com aumentos no humor negativo após a MA triste e melhorias no humor em ambos os grupos após IM, independentemente do seu conteúdo emocional. Isso sugere que as IMs podem ser usadas como uma estratégia eficaz de regulação emocional para o material autobiográfico negativo, e que o conteúdo emocional das imagens pode não ter um impacto crucial nesse processo, porém são necessários mais estudos para realizar esta avaliação, explorar diferentes tipos de memória emocional e estender esse paradigma para populações clínicas. / [en] The current dissertation aims to explore the connection between autobiographical memories (AM) and mental imagery (MI) through a systematic review and an empirical study. The present review investigates the role of AM and MI as mood induction procedures (MIP). Results broadly suggest that a variety of cues to elicit AM or MI has been used. It was also found that few studies reported statistical results about the methods efficacy, control for demand effects, or employed physiological measures of emotion. Further work investigating the implications of these methodological issues is recommended. The empirical study explored the effects of MI tasks (positive or neutral) on AM of healthy young adults. In Session 1, participants remembered a sad life event. Depending on their group, they should imagine either a positive or a neutral alternative scenario to the memory. Two weeks later, in Session 2, they had to complete the same memory task. Results indicate that MIPs were effective, with increases in negative mood after the sad AM and improvements in mood in both groups after imagery regardless of its emotional content. Memory report revealed that groups had a similar profile of memory intrusion. This suggests that mental imagery may be used as an effective emotional regulation strategy for negative autobiographical material, and that the emotional content of imagery may not have a crucial impact in this process. Further studies are needed to evaluate the use of imagery as emotional regulation, explore different types of emotional memory and extend this paradigm to clinical populations.

科学研究費補助金 研究種目:基盤研究(C)(2) 課題番号:10610105 研究代表者:速水 敏彦 研究期間:1998-2000年度

Syftet med studien var att undersöka självbiografiska positiva och negativa platsminnen relaterat till platsidentitet och de tio fenomenologiska dimensionerna. Autobiografiska minnen är minnen som refererar till viktiga livsperioder och utgör en del av vår identitet. Total 81 kvinnor och 28 män i åldern 39 – 76 år deltog i studien. Designen för analyserna av kvantitativa data var en mellanpersonsdesign, med en oberoende variabel Plats (positiv/negativ) och två beroende variabler platsidentitet (emotionell/kognitiv komponent) samt de tio fenomenologiska dimensioner i det självbiografiska minnet. Mätinstrumentet bestod av en enkät i tre delar som innehöll frågor baserat på tidigare forskning. Resultatet visade en effekt av Typ av Platsminne. Effekten var associerad med både den emotionella och kognitiva komponenten i platsidentiteten. Resultatet visade också en effekt av Typ av Plats på de tio fenomenologiska dimensionerna. Effekten var associerad med sex av dessa. Det kvalitativa resultatet visade att positiva platsminnen innehåller minnen från rurala miljöer medan negativa minnen i huvudsak var urbana miljöer. Resultatet visade även att en övervägande del av minnena i huvudsak innehöll barndomsminnen oavsett positiva eller negativa platsminnen. / The aim was to investigate positive and negative place-related autobiographical memories related to place-identity and phenomenological dimensions of the autobiographical memory. Autobiographical memories are memories that refer to important life periods, grounding our identity. 81 women and 28 men. Between-subject-design was used for quantitative data, with an independent variable of Place (positive / negative) and two dependent variables of Place-identity (emotional / cognitive component) as well as the ten phenomenological dimensions of the autobiographical memory. The measuring instrument consisted of a three-part questionnaire that contained questions based on previous research. Results showed an effect of Type of Place associated with both emotional and cognitive components of place identity. We also reported an effect of Type of Place on six of ten phenomenological dimensions. The qualitative results showed that positive memories contain memories from rural environments, while negative memories contain mainly urban environments. The results also showed that a majority of the memories contained mainly childhood associated memories, regardless of positive or negative place memories.