Memory biases in problematic social media use: The impact of attachment insecurity

IF 4.9 2区 医学 Q1 PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH
Xujia Bai , Chunmei Lan , Jiayu Li , Yuhong Zhou , Lian Zhou , Xuemei Gao
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Attachment insecurity may intensify the formation of rewarding memory traces associated with social media, potentially driving subsequent social media use in familiar contexts. However, the details of what individuals with problematic social media use (PSMU) remember of social media-related episodes under attachment threat are still largely unknown. The study applied a novel memory task to investigate how attachment threat biases the long-term retrieval of social media-related episodes among at-risk users and to identify which memory aspects predict usage. Results revealed that the acute threat significantly heightened physiological and subjective attachment insecurity and selectively modulated memory retrieval. This modulation reduced access to neutral item memories while enhancing bias toward social media-related associations. Furthermore, enhanced but less detailed memory (i.e., gist memory) for social media-related associations significantly predicted actual social media usage. Trait attachment also influenced memory performance, with attachment anxiety and avoidance predicting different aspects of gist memory performance. These findings advance understanding of the cognitive processes connecting insecure attachment with PSMU and highlight the significance of considering individual differences in attachment when developing prevention and intervention strategies.
有问题的社交媒体使用中的记忆偏差:依恋不安全感的影响
依恋不安全感可能会强化与社交媒体相关的有益记忆痕迹的形成,潜在地推动随后在熟悉的环境中使用社交媒体。然而,社交媒体使用问题个体(PSMU)在依恋威胁下对社交媒体相关事件的记忆细节在很大程度上仍然未知。这项研究应用了一项新的记忆任务来调查依恋威胁如何影响高危用户对社交媒体相关事件的长期检索,并确定哪些记忆方面可以预测使用情况。结果表明,急性威胁显著增加了生理和主观依恋不安全感,并选择性地调节了记忆检索。这种调节减少了对中性项目记忆的获取,同时增强了对社交媒体相关联想的偏见。此外,社交媒体相关关联的增强但不太详细的记忆(即gist记忆)显著地预测了实际的社交媒体使用情况。特质依恋也会影响记忆表现,依恋焦虑和依恋回避预测主要记忆表现的不同方面。这些发现促进了对不安全依恋与PSMU之间的认知过程的理解,并强调了在制定预防和干预策略时考虑依恋个体差异的重要性。
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来源期刊
Social Science & Medicine
Social Science & Medicine PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH-
CiteScore
9.10
自引率
5.60%
发文量
762
审稿时长
38 days
期刊介绍: Social Science & Medicine provides an international and interdisciplinary forum for the dissemination of social science research on health. We publish original research articles (both empirical and theoretical), reviews, position papers and commentaries on health issues, to inform current research, policy and practice in all areas of common interest to social scientists, health practitioners, and policy makers. The journal publishes material relevant to any aspect of health from a wide range of social science disciplines (anthropology, economics, epidemiology, geography, policy, psychology, and sociology), and material relevant to the social sciences from any of the professions concerned with physical and mental health, health care, clinical practice, and health policy and organization. We encourage material which is of general interest to an international readership.
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