Background: Little is known of the impact of repeated retrieval of negative material on the content of what depressed individuals remember. On the premise that high dysphoric individuals possess: (i) a tendency to ruminate, and (ii) deficient inhibition of negative material, we hypothesized that they would demonstrate less inhibition of unpracticed and non-practiced negative material.
Methods: High and low dysphoric participants' memory for practiced, unpracticed and non-practiced negative and neutral words was tested with the retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) paradigm.
Results: Across participants, RIF was observed for neutral words. In both groups, there was no difference between the recall of unpracticed and non-practiced negative words.
Limitations: Use of a non-clinical sample.
Conclusions: Findings are discussed in the context of methodological suggestions about how future studies could enhance the applicability of the RIF procedure to investigate the impact of ruminative rehearsal.