The effect of intentional memory encoding on emotional-induced blindness: a study focusing on individuals with depressive tendencies

The study employed a special paradigm involving “targeted forgetting” and “emotional-induced visual blindness” to compare the intentional memory of negative images among individuals with normal mental states and those with depressive tendencies. It also examined whether memory-related biases in the cognitive structure of depression could lead to attention biases. The experiment consisted of three stages: first, both groups were asked to consciously remember or forget certain negative images. Subsequently, these images were used as interference stimuli during emotional-induced visual blindness tests. Finally, participants were asked to recognize the images again. The results showed that both groups exhibited similar patterns of targeted forgetting. However, there were differences between the groups in terms of emotional-induced visual blindness—individuals with normal mental states tended to experience emotional-induced visual blindness when recalling negative images…