Comparing the impacts of rumination and replay on memory

Poster Session C - Sunday, March 30, 2025, 5:00 – 7:00 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Paige Sevchik¹ (psevchik@sas.upenn.edu), Brynn Sherman¹, Anna Schapiro¹; ¹University of Pennsylvania

Replay, the automatic reinstatement of past experiences, and rumination, the more explicit review of negative events, are both offline processes which involve reactivating prior memories. Though they have distinct characteristics, the hippocampus is known to be involved in both processes, and there is evidence that memory is influenced by both. Although it is well-known that replay strengthens and transforms memories, the links between rumination and memory are mixed. While there is some evidence that rumination, and depression more generally, leads to less specific, overgeneralized memories, other research suggests it actually contributes to more specific and even exceptionally detailed memory. Here, we aim to directly compare the effects of replay and rumination on memory. Participants will watch sad film clips to simulate the experience of a real-life negative event, then for each film clip will be induced to either replay the movie events using awake targeted memory reactivation or ruminate over the events, with the order of inductions counterbalanced within-participant. Memory for the film events will be assessed via a free recall task both immediately and after a 24-hour delay. Recall will be analyzed for information such as level of detail and emotional tone. Comparing the contents of recall across the rumination and replay induction conditions will provide insight into the extent to which rumination and replay have related impacts on memory, which could have implications for clinical interventions targeting rumination symptoms.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic