Episodic Memory and Episodic Future Thinking Across Those with and Without Chronic Pain

This dataset contains information from a cross-section survey design. The study was approved by the University of Canberra Human Research Ethics Committee (Project ID: 14125). The study aimed to investigate the detail, specificity, and content of recalled personal memories and imagined hypothetical future scenarios between those with and without chronic pain. The study also aimed to investigate any associations between pain-related fear and pain catastrophising with the aforementioned characteristics of EM and EFT in the recruited chronic pain population. To measure EM and EFT, an adapted version of the autobiographical interview was used. Participants were presented with four cue words for each task (eight in total). Participants were asked to detail a personal event from their past (EM task) or future (EFT task) in relation to the cue word. The autoscoring NLP model developed by van Genugten & Schacter (2024) was used to score the internal and external details of each described event. In the data set, the average number of internal and external details elicited during the EM and EFT tasks are provided, alongside the average proportional amount of internal (episodic) detail generated (relative to total word output). Specificity of events was assessed manually in line with previous research (Quenstedt et al., 2021). In the data set, EM and EFT specificity are represented as a sum of the number of specific events recalled (EM) or imagined (EFT). The presence of negative emotion was also scored in line with (Quenstedt et al., 2021). Here, if a single event with negative emotion was recalled (EM) the participant would receive a score of 1. If they did not recall any event that had a negative emotion, they received a score of 0. This was identical for EFT. All participants also completed the fear of pain questionnaire-III and pain catastrophising scale, with summed scores for each subscale provided in the dataset. Total scores were also calculated for each measure. Participants with chronic pain provided information related to their pain by completing the short-form Mcgill pain questionnaire-II. In the dataset, the average score for the intensity of different pain qualities experienced in the last score is provided. This was considered as a measure of recent pain intensity. In this data set, we found an interaction between age and chronic pain status was associated with reduced episodic detail recalled during EM. Specifically, older individuals with chronic pain had fewer episodic details recalled during EM compared to olde rpain-free individuals. We did not observe a significant interaction for EFT (p = .056), however, we do note that a similar trend may exist should future research continue to explore this. We also found that, when considering age, chronic pain status was not associated with differences in EM and EFT specificity. We also report that rumination and helplessness were both associated with EM detail in chronic pain.本数据集包含一项横断面调查设计研究的相关信息，该研究已获堪培拉大学人类研究伦理委员会（University of Canberra Human Research Ethics Committee）批准（项目编号：14125）。本研究旨在对比慢性疼痛患者与非慢性疼痛群体的自传体回忆记忆与假想未来情景的细节特征、特异性及内容；同时在招募的慢性疼痛人群中，探究疼痛相关恐惧与疼痛灾难化（pain catastrophising）与前述情景记忆（Episodic Memory, EM）及情景未来思维（Episodic Future Thinking, EFT）特征之间的关联。 本研究采用改编版自传访谈范式测量EM与EFT：每项任务向被试呈现4个线索词（总计8个），要求被试针对线索词详述一段过往个人事件（EM任务）或假想未来个人事件（EFT任务）。本研究使用van Genugten与Schacter（2024）开发的自动评分自然语言处理（Natural Language Processing, NLP）模型，对每项描述事件的内部细节与外部细节进行评分。数据集中提供了EM与EFT任务中引出的平均内部细节数、平均外部细节数，以及生成的平均内部（情景）细节占总词数的比例。事件特异性的评分参照既往研究方法（Quenstedt等，2021）由人工完成：数据集中EM与EFT的特异性以被试回忆起的具体事件数（EM）或想象出的具体事件数（EFT）之和表示。负性情绪的评分同样参照Quenstedt等（2021）的方法：若被试在EM任务中回忆起带有负性情绪的事件，则记1分；若未回忆起任何带有负性情绪的事件，则记0分。EFT任务的评分规则与此完全一致。所有被试均完成了疼痛恐惧问卷-III（Fear of Pain Questionnaire-III, FPQ-III）与疼痛灾难化量表（Pain Catastrophizing Scale, PCS），数据集中提供了各子量表的总分，同时计算了两项测量的总得分。 慢性疼痛组被试通过填写简版麦吉尔疼痛问卷-II（Short-form McGill Pain Questionnaire-II, SF-MPQ-II）提供了与其疼痛相关的信息。数据集中提供了被试在末次评分阶段所经历的不同疼痛特质的强度平均得分，该指标被用作近期疼痛强度的衡量标准。 本数据集的分析结果显示，年龄与慢性疼痛状态的交互作用与EM任务中回忆出的情景细节减少相关：具体而言，慢性疼痛老年群体在EM任务中回忆出的情景细节数量少于无痛老年群体。本研究未观察到EFT任务存在显著交互作用（p=0.056），但我们注意到，若未来开展相关研究，或可发现类似的趋势。此外，在控制年龄因素后，慢性疼痛状态与EM及EFT的特异性差异无显著关联。本研究同时发现，反刍思维（rumination）与无助感（helplessness）均与慢性疼痛群体的EM任务细节表现相关。