Mood congruent memory bias in implicit memory of individuals with depressive and non-depressive mood

In this study, mood congruent bias in implicit memory was investigated with participants who have depressive and non-depressive moods. 2 (group) by 2 (prime) by 2 (valence) factorial design with repeated measures on the last two factors was used. Based on their scores from Beck Depression Inventory (BDI); the participants (N = 106 girls) were divided into two groups, which consisted of individuals with depressive mood (n = 30) and non-depressive mood (n = 30). In implicit memory paradigm, 40 self-referent adjectives (20 negatively and 20 positively affective valence); and the word stem completion test were used. Implicit memory or priming was showed by demonstration of more frequent word stem completion of studied words than unstudied words. Data were analyzed with repeated measure ANOVA, where the repetitions were on the last two factors. Results showed that the participants with depressive mood were more likely to prime negative adjectives; whereas participants with non-depressive mood were more likely to prime positive adjectives. This finding has pointed out that there has been mood congruent bias in the implicit memory. These results were discussed in the light of the literature on mood-congruent memory bias in emotional disorders and implicit memory.