高社交焦慮者在指示遺忘作業之回憶表現--從遺忘觀點探討記憶偏誤

Abstract

本研究主要目的在於運用指示遺忘作業探討高社交焦慮者是否有記憶偏誤現象。高社交焦慮組24人與低社交焦慮組20人參與正式實驗，受試者被要求依據指示記住或忘記三種類型刺激詞（社交威脅、中性、社交正向）。作業結果未發現任何顯著之組間差異，但進一步分析發現，在指示記住項目的回憶上，所有受試者皆回憶出較多的社交正向詞（相對於中性詞以及社交威脅詞），顯示記憶的正向偏誤，然而，在指示忘記項目的回憶上，正向偏誤的現象僅出現在低社交焦慮組，不見於高社交焦慮組。此外，相關分析顯示，高社交焦慮組的FNE量表（Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale）得分與指示記住的社交正向詞回憶量成正相關，與指示忘記的社交威脅詞回憶量成負相關；低社交焦慮組的FNE量表得分與指示記住的社交正向詞回憶量成負相關。這些結果顯示高社交焦慮者可能缺乏正向偏誤的保護機制，較一般人更容易遺忘正向評價訊息，因而更容易受到負面評價的影響，於是他們傾向抑制負向評價訊息的回憶，將注意力投注在非威脅訊息，並努力記住正向評價，換言之，他們透過逃避負面評價的方式來維持良好的自我形象。

The purpose of the present study was to utilize the directed forgetting task to investigate the memory bias in socially anxious individuals. Performance on a directed forgetting task was assessed in socially anxious (n=24) and nonanxious (n=20) individuals. Participants were presented with three types of words (negative social, neutral, positive social) and were cued to either remember or forget each word as it was presented. There were no between-groups differences on a free recall task for words in both remember and forget conditions. Follow-up analyses demonstrated that all subjects recalled more positive social words than either neutral words or negative social words in the remember condition, revealing the positive memory bias. However, only nonanxious individuals showed such positive memory bias in the forget condition, while high-social-anxiety individuals did not. Moreover, in the social anxiety group, the Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (FNE) scores were positively related to the recall of positive social “to-be-remembered” words, and negatively related to the recall of negative social “to-be-forgotten” words. In the control group, FNE scores were negatively related to the recall of positive social “to-be-remembered” words. These results suggest that the protective positive bias was absent in socially anxious individuals. Thus, they were more likely than nonanxious individuals to forget positive evaluative information; therefore, they were vulnerable to negative evaluation. Furthermore, people with excessive social anxiety might try hard to inhibit the recall of negative evaluation and to remember positive evaluation. In other words, they made an effort to maintain a good impression by avoiding negative evaluative information.