Objectives: It was hypothesized that people with persecutory delusions, such as depressed people, would experience difficulty when attempting to generate specific autobiographical memories.
Design: 20 deluded participants, 20 depressed patients and 20 normal controls were compared on an autobiographical memory test.
Methods: Participants attempted to recall memories to positive and negative cue words. Independent raters classified responses as specific, general, imaginary or unscorable. Over-general memories were further classified as extended or categorical.
Results: Deluded participants recalled significantly more general (especially categorical) memories and fewer specific memories than the normal control subjects. Depressed participants showed little evidence of over-general memories, although they showed faster recall latencies to negative than to positive cues.
Conclusions: People with paranoid delusions show information processing features similar to those previously reported in people with depression. The possible contribution of adverse experiences to over-general autobiographical recall is discussed.