Sitting Posture Makes a Difference—Embodiment Effects on Depressive Memory Bias

Basic research has shown that the motoric system (i.e., motor actions or stable postures) can strongly affect emotional processes. The present study sought to investigate the effects of sitting posture on the tendency of depressed individuals to recall a higher proportion of negative self‐referent material. Thirty currently depressed inpatients either sat in a slumped (depressed) or in an upright (non‐depressed) posture while imagining a visual scene of themselves in connection with positive or depression related words presented to them on a computer screen. An incidental recall test of these words was conducted after a distraction task. Results of a mixed ANOVA showed a significant posture x word type interaction, with upright‐sitting patients showing unbiased recall of positive and negative words but slumped patients showing recall biased towards more negative words. The findings indicate that relatively minor changes in the motoric system can affect one of the best‐documented cognitive biases in depression. Practical implications of the findings are discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key Practitioner Message Features of patients' motoric system (i.e., habitual movement patterns or body postures) might be relevant for individual case conceptualization. Training patients to change habitual motoric patterns (e.g., dysfunctional posture or movement patterns) might attenuate negatively biased information processing in depressed patients. Training patients in mindful body awareness might be useful because it fosters an intuitive understanding of the interplay of bodily and emotional processes.