The roles of dysfunctional attitudes, rumination and mind-wandering in emotional and non-emotional memory of university students in China

Background Memory deficits are among the key risk factors in mental health problems, and are associated with dysfunctional cognitive factors. Aims The present study explored the relations between dysfunctional attitudes, rumination and mind-wandering, and emotional and non-emotional memory, respectively, aiming to inform the mechanism underlying the negative association of these cognitive factors with memory. Method A total of 123 undergraduate university students completed self-report measurements, including Dysfunctional Attitude Scale Form A, Rumination Responses Scale, Mind Wandering Frequency Scale and the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. Additionally, they were invited to participate in an experiment consisting of two tasks ( n = 111 completed the task for emotional memory and n = 110 for non-emotional memory). Pearson correlation analysis and a linear regression model examined the relationship between cognitive factors and memory performance. Results Based on correlational analyses, rumination, dysfunctional attitudes and depression are negatively correlated with the accuracy of negative emotional face memory (emotional memory, all P