New research from the University of North Florida finds a link between poor memory and pessimism.
At the same time, researchers were surprised to find young people were more pessimistic than older people.
UNF Professor Tracy Alloway said past research has shown working memory, which is the ability to process and remember information, is linked to clinical depression.
Alloway said after a job interview, a clinically depressed person might “fixate just on those negative aspects of your interview rather than thinking of what you did well or what you could do better for the future.”
On the other hand, she said, someone with a better working memory is more able to focus on the positives.
Alloway and UNF graduate student John Horton tested more than 2,000 healthy people ages 16 to 79, asking them to rate their optimism and pessimism levels.
“They had to rate themselves on questions like ‘I think something positive is going to happen in my future,’”Alloway said.
She also measured their working memory, which can be tested by asking them to demonstrate how many numbers can they remember in backwards order.
“We tested them right up to having to remember nine numbers in backwards order,” she said “The average adult can remember five, maybe six numbers.”
She said someone with poor working memory might only be able to remember three numbers. As she published in the Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology, Alloway found people’s working memory predicted whether they were optimistic or pessimistic. People with lower working memory scores were more negative.
Another result was surprising: Teens and young adults had the highest levels of pessimism.
“You generally think of them as being optimistic, but that’s not what we found,” she said. “In fact it may be the pressure because the future is ahead of them that they tended to take a more pessimistic outlook of the future.”
Her study also found nearly 85 percent of those who reported feelings of depression were also pessimistic, ranking themselves high in scenarios like “If something can go wrong with me, it will.”
However, Alloway said there are things people can do to improve their memory, like eating more blueberries or dark chocolate. She said even moving in unusual ways like crawling or climbing trees can help, as she explained in a CNN article last week.
Or, she said, people can be more intentional in focusing on positive aspects of events. Alloway wrote a book about her research of these techniques.
She said next, she wants to dive deeper into the link between depression and working memory.
Photo: "Mmmmm Chocolate" used under Creative Commons.
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Reporter Lindsey Kilbride can be reached at lkilbride@wjct.org, 904-358-6359 or on Twitter at @lindskilbride.
