Rumination, but not mood, predicts prospective memory performance: novel insights from a derived measure of trait rumination

Prospective memory (PM) is the accurate execution of an intention in the future. PM may be negatively impacted by negative affect, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Rumination may increase the frequency of task-irrelevant thoughts, which deplete attentional capacity and reduce performance. To date, no studies have examined state and trait rumination on an online measure of PM. The present study examined the effects of state and trait rumination on an event-based, focal PM task embedded within a one-back task over multiple sessions. 95 non-depressed adults (18–53 years) completed measures of state/trait rumination, mood, and PM on at least two occasions. Using multi-level modelling, we found that a derived measure of trait rumination, but not an established trait rumination survey, nor negative mood, predicted poorer PM accuracy. These novel findings demonstrate that trait rumination may partially underlie the association between negative affect & PM in a non-clinical sample, and highlight the potential of online methods to study PM.前瞻记忆（Prospective Memory, PM）指的是在未来准确落实预先拟定意图的行为。负性情绪可能会对前瞻记忆产生负面影响，但其背后的潜在机制仍未明晰。反刍思维（Rumination）可能会增加任务无关想法的出现频次，进而消耗注意资源并降低任务表现。截至目前，尚无研究通过在线测量方式考察状态反刍思维与特质反刍思维对前瞻记忆的影响。 本研究采用多会话范式，在单回溯任务（one-back task）中内嵌基于事件的焦点型前瞻记忆任务，以此考察状态与特质反刍思维对前瞻记忆的作用效果。共有95名非抑郁成人（年龄范围18~53岁）在至少两次测试中完成了状态反刍思维、特质反刍思维、情绪状态及前瞻记忆的相关测评。 通过多层建模（Multi-level Modelling）分析，本研究发现：特质反刍思维的衍生测评指标，而非已有的标准化特质反刍思维量表评分或负性情绪水平，能够显著预测前瞻记忆准确率的降低。 本研究的创新性发现表明，在非临床样本中，特质反刍思维可能是负性情绪与前瞻记忆之间关联的部分中介因素，同时也凸显了采用在线研究方法开展前瞻记忆研究的应用潜力。