Memory processes and hypochondriacal tendencies.

Abstract

Students with high and low Scale 1 (hypochondriasis scale) responses on the MMPI reported health-related and nonhealth-related events about themselves or about a close friend and then listened to tapes of others doing the same. Memory after 1 week was identical for the two groups, but identification of the origin of a memory varied with Scale 1 responses. Low Scale 1 subjects made fewer confusions than high Scale 1 subjects when distinguishing between memories about their health and the health of a friend or of a stranger. However, high Scale 1 subjects were at least as able to determine the origin of a memory as were normal subjects when the discrimination did not involve a memory about themselves. Interestingly, it does not appear that high Scale 1 individuals are particularly poor at monitoring the origin of health-related memories, but rather that normals are particularly good monitors in this domain.