Accessibility model of overgeneral autobiographical memory.

Overgeneral autobiographical memory (OGM), the inability to recall specific events and instead recall general memories, is a well-known feature of psychopathology. Although OGM has been regarded as a deficit in generative retrieval, recent studies highlight the role of direct and involuntary (associative) retrieval in OGM. We propose the accessibility model, which discards the hierarchical structure of autobiographical memory and truncated search hypothesis. The accessibility model assumes that memory representations of different specificities are structured in parallel, and compete to be retrieved. The model contends that direct and generative retrieval are serial processes (i.e., direct retrieval initially, followed by generative retrieval), and specific and general memory accessibility each affect OGM. We argue that increased accessibility of negative general memories and decreased accessibility of positive specific memories underlie OGM in depression. These changes in accessibility are differentially associated with hippocampal abnormalities, memory suppression, self-referential processing, and positivity biases, suggesting different mechanisms depending on emotional valence. Furthermore, we propose that metacognitive monitoring and control are required to initiate generative retrieval when retrieved memories are goal inconsistent. The accessibility model integrates existing basic memory and OGM research, which may lead to improved memory therapeutics, and new avenues for research development.

• Publication year

  2025

• Venue

  Behaviour Research and Therapy

• Publication date

  2025-11-21

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Psychology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/j.brat.2025.104921PMID 41297436
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Meta-memory (prediction) of specific autobiographical recall: An experimental approach using a modified autobiographical memory test

  2024cited by this paper
• The Properties of Involuntary and Voluntary Autobiographical Memories in Chinese Patients with Depression and Healthy Individuals

  2023cited by this paper
• Priming in the autobiographical memory system: implications and future directions

  2023cited by this paper
• Bias and constructive processes in a self-memory system

  2023cited by this paper
• A Meta-Analysis of the Influence of Cue Valence on Overgeneral Memory and Autobiographical Memory Specificity Among Youth

  2023cited by this paper
• Direct retrieval as a theory of involuntary autobiographical memories: evaluation and future directions

  2023cited by this paper
• Neurocognitive Model of Schema-Congruent and -Incongruent Learning in Clinical Disorders: Application to Social Anxiety and Beyond

  2023cited by this paper
• Strategic regulation of memory in dsyphoria: a quantity-accuracy profile analysis

  2023cited by this paper
• Optimal metacognitive control of memory recall.

  2023cited by this paper
• Overgeneralization as a Predictor of the Course of Depression Over Time: The Role of Negative Overgeneralization to the Self, Negative Overgeneralization Across Situations, and Overgeneral Autobiographical Memory

  2023cited by this paper
• Direct accessibility for overgeneral memory predicts a worse course of depression: re-analysis of the online computerised memory specificity training for major depression study

  2023cited by this paper
• Improving mental health by training the suppression of unwanted thoughts

  2023cited by this paper
• The Effectiveness of Transdiagnostic Applications of Competitive Memory Training (COMET) on Low Self-Esteem and Comorbid Depression: A Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

  2022cited by this paper
• The phenomenology of autobiographical retrieval.

  2022cited by this paper
• Different retrieval mechanisms of overgeneral autobiographical memory for positive and negative cues in remitted major depressive disorder.

  2022cited by this paper
• Sad reflections of happy times: depression vulnerability and experiences of sadness and happiness upon retrieval of positive autobiographical memories

  2022cited by this paper
• Direct retrieval bias for general and specific memories for negatively valenced cues in major depression

  2022cited by this paper
• Schema-Driven Involuntary Categoric Memory in Depression

  2022cited by this paper
• Prefrontal-hippocampal interactions supporting the extinction of emotional memories: the retrieval stopping model

  2021cited by this paper
• Finding positive meaning in memories of negative events adaptively updates memory

  2021cited by this paper
• Autobiographical memory impairments as a transdiagnostic feature of mental illness: A meta-analytic review of investigations into autobiographical memory specificity and overgenerality among people with psychiatric diagnoses.

  2021cited by this paper
• Targeting image-based autobiographical memory in childhood to prevent emotional disorders: Intervention development and a feasibility randomised controlled trial.

  2021cited by this paper
• Do intuitive ideas of the qualities that should characterize involuntary and voluntary memories affect their classification?

  2021cited by this paper
• Autobiographical memory specificity and mnemonic discrimination

  2021cited by this paper
• No consolidation without representation: Correspondence between neural and psychological representations in recent and remote memory.

  2021cited by this paper
• Cognitive Reactivity Amplifies the Activation and Development of Negative Self-schema: A Revised Mnemic Neglect Paradigm and Computational Modelling

  2021cited by this paper
• Remembering for resilience: Brief cognitive‐reminiscence therapy improves psychological resources and mental well‐being in young adults

  2021cited by this paper
• Self-referential Processing in Remitted Depression: An Event-Related Potential Study

  2021cited by this paper
• Repeated Retrieval of Generalized Memories can Impair Specific Autobiographical Recall: A Retrieval Induced Forgetting Account

  2021cited by this paper
• The current state of memory Specificity Training (MeST) for emotional disorders.

  2021cited by this paper
• Proof of Concept for the Autobiographical Memory Flexibility (MemFlex) Intervention for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

  2021cited by this paper
• Autobiographical memory style and clinical outcomes following mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT): An individual patient data meta-analysis.

  2021cited by this paper
• Reduced specificity and increased overgenerality of autobiographical memory persist as cognitive vulnerabilities in remitted major depression: A meta‐analysis

  2021cited by this paper
• Increased Direct Retrieval of Overgeneral Categoric Memory in Individuals with Dysphoria and a History of Major Depression

  2020cited by this paper
• Evidence That “Voluntary” Versus “Involuntary” Retrieval Is a Fluency-Based Attribution

  2020cited by this paper
• Overgeneral and specific autobiographical memory predict the course of depression: an updated meta-analysis

  2020cited by this paper
• Forgetting unrelated episodic memories through suppression-induced amnesia.

  2020cited by this paper
• Role of autobiographical memory in the impact of MBCT on dysfunctional attitudes, depressive symptoms and anxiety in bipolar I patients.

  2020cited by this paper
• Memory suppression and its deficiency in psychological disorders: A focused meta-analysis.

  2020cited by this paper
• Involuntary autobiographical memories and their relation to other forms of spontaneous thoughts

  2020cited by this paper
• Active Forgetting: Adaptation of Memory by Prefrontal Control.

  2020cited by this paper
• Generalization and the hippocampus: More than one story?

  2020cited by this paper
• Trait Mindfulness and Emotion Regulation upon Autobiographical Memory Retrieval during Depression Remission

  2020cited by this paper
• When Beliefs Face Reality: An Integrative Review of Belief Updating in Mental Health and Illness

  2020cited by this paper
• Mental Time Travel? A Neurocognitive Model of Event Simulation

  2020cited by this paper
• Autobiographical Memory Impairment in Borderline Personality Disorder: A Quantitative Meta-analysis Interpreted in Terms of the CaR-FA-X Model.

  2019cited by this paper
• Effective connectivity within the ventromedial prefrontal cortex‐hippocampus‐amygdala network during the elaboration of emotional autobiographical memories

  2019cited by this paper
• Spontaneous and deliberate future thinking: a dual process account

  2019cited by this paper
• A meta-analysis and systematic review of Memory Specificity Training (MeST) in the treatment of emotional disorders.

  2019cited by this paper
• A contextual binding theory of episodic memory: systems consolidation reconsidered

  2019cited by this paper
• Mnemonic Similarity Task: A Tool for Assessing Hippocampal Integrity.

  2019cited by this paper
• Memory Category Fluency, Memory Specificity, and the Fading Affect Bias for Positive and Negative Autobiographical Events: Performance on a Good Day–Bad Day Task in Healthy and Depressed Individuals

  2019cited by this paper
• Are episodic memories special? On the sameness of remembered and imagined event simulation

  2018cited by this paper
• A test of the functional avoidance hypothesis in the development of overgeneral autobiographical memory

  2018cited by this paper
• The role of executive function in autobiographical memory retrieval: does the type of cue word matter?

  2018cited by this paper
• Overgeneral autobiographical memory and depression in older adults: a systematic review

  2018cited by this paper
• The Neurobiology of Reduced Autobiographical Memory Specificity.

  2018cited by this paper
• Retrieval process of overgeneral memory and the capture and executive control hypothesis: using Autobiographical Memory Test with thought sampling

  2018cited by this paper
• Meta-analysis of the association between rumination and reduced autobiographical memory specificity

  2018cited by this paper
• Hippocampal dysfunction in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia: a selective review and hypothesis for early detection and intervention

  2018cited by this paper
• The positivity effect: a negativity bias in youth fades with age.

  2018cited by this paper
• Knowledge Is Power: Prior Knowledge Aids Memory for Both Congruent and Incongruent Events, but in Different Ways

  2018cited by this paper
• Abstract Memory Representations in the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex and Hippocampus Support Concept Generalization

  2018cited by this paper
• Depression diagnoses, but not individual differences in depression symptoms, are associated with reduced autobiographical memory specificity

  2018cited by this paper
• Memory Control: A Fundamental Mechanism of Emotion Regulation

  2018cited by this paper
• Mnemonic accessibility affects statement believability: The effect of listening to others selectively practicing beliefs.

  2018cited by this paper
• The Devil’s in the Detail: Accessibility of Specific Personal Memories Supports Rose-Tinted Self-Generalizations in Mental Health and Toxic Self-Generalizations in Clinical Depression

  2017cited by this paper
• Autobiographical episodic memory-based training for the treatment of mood, anxiety and stress-related disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

  2017cited by this paper
• Overgeneral Autobiographical Memory in Healthy Young and Older Adults: Differential Age Effects on Components of the Capture and Rumination, Functional Avoidance, and Impaired Executive Control (CaRFAX) Model

  2017cited by this paper
• Effects of self-relevant cues and cue valence on autobiographical memory specificity in dysphoria

  2017cited by this paper
• Neurobiology of Schemas and Schema-Mediated Memory.

  2017cited by this paper
• Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Autobiographical Memories in Everyday Life

  2017cited by this paper
• The effect of cue content on retrieval from autobiographical memory.

  2017cited by this paper
• Episodic and semantic content of memory and imagination: A multilevel analysis

  2017cited by this paper
• Explanation can cause Forgetting: Memory Dynamics in the Generation of New Arguments

  2017cited by this paper
• A Perspective on the Theoretical Foundation of Dual Process Models

  2017cited by this paper
• Author ’ s Accepted Manuscript Psychometric Properties of the Written Version of the Autobiographical Memory Test in a Japanese Community Sample

  2016cited by this paper
• Cognitive Reflection and Decision Making

  2016cited by this paper
• Episodic Memory and Beyond: The Hippocampus and Neocortex in Transformation.

  2016cited by this paper
• Prefrontal-hippocampal pathways underlying inhibitory control over memory.

  2016cited by this paper
• The effects of autobiographical memory flexibility (MemFlex) training: An uncontrolled trial in individuals in remission from depression.

  2016cited by this paper
• The University of Birmingham ( Live System ) Neural markers of inhibition in human memory retrieval

  2016cited by this paper
• Autobiographical Memory-Based Intervention for Depressive Symptoms in Young Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Cognitive-Reminiscence Therapy

  2016cited by this paper
• Inducing amnesia through systemic suppression

  2016cited by this paper
• A Meta-Analysis of Autobiographical Memory Studies in Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorder.

  2015cited by this paper
• A two-factor model of relapse/recurrence vulnerability in unipolar depression.

  2015cited by this paper
• Retrieval Induces Adaptive Forgetting of Competing Memories via Cortical Pattern Suppression

  2015cited by this paper
• The role of self during autobiographical remembering and psychopathology: evidence from philosophical, behavioral, neural, and cultural investigations

  2015cited by this paper
• Reduced hippocampal volume is associated with overgeneralization of negative context in individuals with PTSD.

  2015cited by this paper
• Resting-state functional connectivity in major depressive disorder: A review.

  2015cited by this paper
• Failing to Forget

  2015cited by this paper
• What makes us think? A three-stage dual-process model of analytic engagement.

  2015cited by this paper
• Positive Imagery-Based Cognitive Bias Modification as a Web-Based Treatment Tool for Depressed Adults

  2015cited by this paper
• Depressive Rumination, the Default-Mode Network, and the Dark Matter of Clinical Neuroscience.

  2015cited by this paper
• Effects of task instruction on autobiographical memory specificity in young and older adults

  2014cited by this paper
• Executive dysfunction and autobiographical memory retrieval in recovered depressed women☆

  2014cited by this paper
• Testing the CaR-FA-X model: investigating the mechanisms underlying reduced autobiographical memory specificity in individuals with and without a history of depression.

  2014cited by this paper
• Differential correlates of autobiographical memory specificity to affective and self-discrepant cues

  2014cited by this paper
• FMRI contributions to addressing autobiographical memory impairment in temporal lobe pathology.

  2014cited by this paper
• An “alternating instructions” version of the Autobiographical Memory Test for assessing autobiographical memory specificity in non-clinical populations

  2014cited by this paper

• No citing papers are available for this paper.