Supporting data for "Voluntary forgetting of negative social feedback"

This dataset contains data of 4 studies reported in the Ph.D. thesis (Candidate: XIE Hui; Supervisor: Dr. HU Xiaoqing) entitled "Voluntary Forgetting of Negative Social Feedback" from Department of Psychology. In this thesis, we combined behavioral experiments with EEG and TMS techniques to examine the voluntary forgetting of undesired social feedback during both memory encoding (Study 1 and Study2) and retrieval (Study 3 and Study 4) stages. Study 1 (Chapter 2) examined whether engaging in emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal and distraction) during the encoding of social feedback diminishes its subsequent recall. The results revealed that both strategies reduced negative emotional reactivity while facilitating the forgetting of negative social feedback. Additionally, individual differences in depressive symptoms impacted cortical electroencephalogram (EEG) patterns during emotion regulation. Moreover, the amplitude of the central-parietal late positive potential during distraction negatively correlated with participants’ depression level, indicating that individuals with higher depressive symptoms may benefit more from distraction than reappraisal to regulate emotions from negative social feedback.Study 2 (Chapter 3) utilized repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to investigate whether stimulating the critical brain region involved in the voluntary forgetting of non-social memories could enhance the voluntary forgetting of social memories. Two groups of participants were assigned to perform a directed forgetting task with either social or non-social materials. The results indicated that high-frequency rTMS applied to the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC) improved participants’ ability to forget negative non-social memories, but this effect was not observed for negative social feedback. Interestingly, participants’ level of social anxiety predicted their difficulties in forgetting negative social feedback, but this correlation disappeared after improving their rDLPFC activation through rTMS. Study 3 (Chapter 4) employed a modified version of the Think/No-Think paradigm to investigate whether retrieval suppression could induce the forgetting of positive and negative social feedback. The results demonstrated that retrieval suppression led to below-baseline forgetting for negative social feedback but not for positive social feedback. Furthermore, the results from event-related potential (ERP) and multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) demonstrated that forgetting positive social feedback was more challenging and required greater cognitive effort than forgetting negative social feedback.Building on Study 3, Study 4 (Chapter 5) explored whether reappraisal of negative social feedback after initial encoding could facilitate subsequent retrieval suppression and voluntary forgetting. Behaviourally, using reappraisal to distance oneself from negative social feedback promoted its voluntary forgetting. The ERP and MVPA findings suggested that reappraisal triggered increased engagement of inhibitory control processes during retrieval suppression, thus enhancing the effectiveness of memory control and ultimately facilitating the voluntary forgetting of negative social feedback.This thesis presents novel evidence supporting the voluntary forgetting of unwanted social feedback through diverse strategies and approaches during memory encoding and retrieval stages. These findings advance our theoretical understanding of memory control in social contexts and hold practical implications for safeguarding mental well-being, particularly for individuals experiencing mental distress due to difficulties in spontaneously forgetting self-threatening information.

本数据集收录了心理学系博士论文（候选人为谢辉；导师为胡晓晴博士）中提及的4项研究数据，论文题目为《自愿遗忘负面社会反馈》。在论文中，研究者通过结合行为实验、脑电图（EEG）和经颅磁刺激（TMS）技术，对记忆编码阶段（研究1和研究2）和回忆阶段（研究3和研究4）中自愿遗忘不期望的社会反馈进行了探讨。研究1（第二章）考察了在编码社会反馈时采用情绪调节策略（认知重评和分散注意力）是否能够减弱其后续回忆。结果显示，这两种策略均能降低负面情绪反应，并促进负面社会反馈的遗忘。此外，抑郁症状的个体差异影响了情绪调节过程中的皮层脑电图（EEG）模式。更有甚者，在分散注意力期间中央顶叶晚正电位（cPz LPz）的振幅与参与者的抑郁水平呈负相关，表明抑郁症状较重的个体可能从分散注意力中获益更多，以调节来自负面社会反馈的情绪。研究2（第三章）利用重复经颅磁刺激（rTMS）探究刺激与自愿遗忘非社会记忆相关的关键脑区，是否能够增强对社会记忆的自愿遗忘。两组参与者被分配执行带有社会或非社会材料的定向遗忘任务。结果表明，高频rTMS作用于右侧背外侧前额叶皮层（rDLPFC）能够提高参与者遗忘负面非社会记忆的能力，但对于负面社会反馈则未观察到此效应。有趣的是，参与者的社会焦虑水平预测了他们在遗忘负面社会反馈方面的困难，但通过rTMS改善rDLPFC激活后，这种相关性消失。研究3（第四章）采用修改版的思考/不思考范式，探究回忆抑制是否能够引起积极和负面社会反馈的遗忘。结果显示，回忆抑制导致负面社会反馈的遗忘率低于基线水平，但并未影响积极社会反馈。此外，事件相关电位（ERP）和多变量模式分析（MVPA）的结果表明，遗忘积极社会反馈比遗忘负面社会反馈更具挑战性，需要更多的认知努力。在研究3的基础上，研究4（第五章）探究了在初始编码后对负面社会反馈进行重评，是否能够促进后续的回忆抑制和自愿遗忘。行为研究表明，使用重评策略将自己与负面社会反馈分离，有助于其自愿遗忘。ERP和MVPA发现表明，重评在回忆抑制过程中触发了抑制控制过程的增强参与，从而提高了记忆控制的有效性，最终促进了负面社会反馈的自愿遗忘。本论文通过多种策略和途径，在记忆编码和回忆阶段提供了支持自愿遗忘不受欢迎社会反馈的新证据。这些发现深化了我们对社会环境下记忆控制的理论理解，并为保护心理健康，特别是对于因难以自发遗忘自我威胁信息而遭受心理困扰的个体具有实际意义。