Search

People with a negative body image may be more likely to recall negative memories of their body, but also be motivated to avoid retrieving specific memories to prevent triggering aversive emotions (e.g., disgust). Such inclination to retain at a global level of memory recall may hamper the correction of their negative body image. In previous research using Autobiographical Memory Tests (AMTs) with minimal instructions, we failed to find an overgeneral memory bias specific to individuals with a negative body image but observed low specificity overall in response to body cue words. In the present study (N = 153), we included the traditional AMT next to a minimal instructions AMT and explored the idea that sensory reliving may be relevant to avoidance by assessing sensory reliving ratings next to memory specificity. A negative body image was associated with more negative body memories. In both AMTs, the findings failed to support our prediction that a more negative body image would be associated with lower specificity or sensory reliving. The findings are consistent with the view that autobiographical memories might be an important factor in defining one’s body image, yet cast doubt on the relevance of avoidant retrieval of body-related memories in non-clinical samples.

Disgust-based body image concerns can bias autobiographical memory towards the recall and avoidant processing of disgust-related memories of the own body. Repeated exposure to such memories may help breaking avoidance and promote the habituation of disgust, thereby lowering body concerns. Using a within-participant experimental design, we tested if repeatedly exposing women with high self-disgust (N = 61) to disgust-focused body-related memories vs. neutral memories led to changes in disgust, body acceptance, and reactive avoidance. Disgust towards the body itself only decreased following neutral exposure. Disgust elicited by the body-related memories also decreased following repeated disgust exposure trials. In the disgust exposure session, stronger habitual prevention of body-related disgust was associated with higher disgust elicited by the memories, whereas reactive avoidance increased from pre to post exposure. Pre-post decreases in state disgust in the disgust exposure session were associated with increases in acceptance. Results regarding the disgust exposure session point to the potency of repeated exposure to disgust-eliciting memories as a means to promote the habituation of disgust and formation of positive body appraisals. The tenacity of disgust-driven avoidance highlights the importance of effective response prevention.

Post-traumatic stress disorder is characterised by recurring memories of a traumatic experience despite deliberate attempts to forget. The Think/No-Think (TNT) task has been used widely in the laboratory to study suppression-induced forgetting. Recent meta-analyses have reported small-to-moderate effect sizes in this paradigm. The current replication was a collaborative effort to evaluate this paradigm following pre-registration. In particular, we conducted an online experimenter-present version inclusive of both the same- and independent-probe tests using a direct suppression instruction, resulting in 150 English-speaking healthy individuals (75 Western and 75 non-Western; 89 females; MAge= 31.14, SDAge = 7.73). The think condition facilitated accurate recall relative to the baseline condition (i.e., the positive control that speaks to the integrity of the procedure). Yet, participants did not show reduced correct recall in the no-think compared to the baseline condition. Thus, we did not replicate the suppression-induced forgetting effect (same-probe test: BF01 = 7.84; d = 0.03 [95% CI: -0.13; 0.20]; independent-probe test: BF01 = 5.71; d = 0.06 [95% CI: -0.12; 0.24]). These null results should be considered in light of our online implementation of the paradigm. Nevertheless, our findings call into question the robustness of the suppression-induced forgetting effect.

The term Repulsive Body Image (RBI) refers to a schematic construct combining body-directed self-disgust and other negative body image features. As a self-schema, the RBI is assumed to bias information processing, including autobiographical memory retrieval. When specific memories about the own body are retrieved in a direct (automatic) fashion, intense self-disgust may arise. This may trigger attempts to escape from those memories which, in turn, might further strengthen the RBI. We asked 133 women with high (H-RBI; n = 63) and low (L-RBI; n = 70) levels of habitual body-directed self-disgust to recall autobiographical memories in response to 11 concrete body-related cue words in a minimal instructions Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT). Despite an overall low level of memory specificity, we found that RBI levels were associated with stronger disgust reactions and stronger tendencies to escape from body-related memories. In addition, increased disgust reactions to body-related memories accounted for the association between habitual levels of self-disgust and increased tendencies to escape from these memories. Thus, the findings indicated that women with body image concerns showed disgust-based escape from body-related memories. This disgust-based inclination to avert from body-related autobiographical memories might counteract the correction of an RBI, thereby contributing to the persistence of body image concerns and associated psychopathology.

In 2001, Anderson and Green [2001. Suppressing unwanted memories by executive control. Nature, 410(6826), 366-369] showed memory suppression using a novel Think/No-think (TNT) task. When participants attempted to prevent studied words from entering awareness, they reported fewer of those words than baseline words in subsequent cued recall (i.e., suppression effect). The TNT literature contains predominantly positive findings and few null-results. Therefore we report unpublished replications conducted in the 2000s (N = 49; N = 36). As the features of the data obtained with the TNT task call for a variety of plausible solutions, we report parallel "universes" of data-analyses (i.e., multiverse analysis) testing the suppression effect. Two published studies (Wessel et al., 2005. Dissociation and memory suppression: A comparison of high and low dissociative individuals' performance on the Think-No think Task. Personality and Individual Differences, 39(8), 1461-1470, N = 68; Wessel et al., 2010. Cognitive control and suppression of memories of an emotional film. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 41(2), 83-89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2009.10.005, N = 80) were reanalysed in a similar fashion. For recall probed with studied cues (Same Probes, SP), some tests (sample 3) or all (samples 2 and 4) showed statistically significant suppression effects, whereas in sample 1, only one test showed significance. Recall probed with novel cues (Independent Probes, IP) predominantly rendered non-significant results. The absence of statistically significant IP suppression effects raises problems for inhibition theory and its implication that repression is a viable mechanism of forgetting. The pre-registration, materials, data, and code are publicly available (https://osf.io/qgcy5/).

Post-traumatic stress disorder is characterised by recurring memories of a traumatic experience as well as the deliberate avoidance of those memories in order to forget. However, can intentional suppression really lead to forgetting? The Think/No-Think (TNT) task has been used widely in the laboratory to study suppression-induced forgetting. The idea is that actively suppressing the retrieval of a memory when faced with a reminder reduces its strength, and hence, the memory can become inaccessible across multiple suppression attempts. During the TNT task, participants first learn a series of cue-target word pairs (e.g., WAFFLE-MAPLE). Subsequently, they are presented with a subset of the cue-words and are instructed to either think (respond items) or not think about the corresponding target (suppression items; baseline items are not shown). Successful suppression-induced forgetting is thought to reduce recall of the suppressed items compared to baseline items in subsequent memory tests. Although recent meta-analyses have reported small-to-moderate effect sizes in this paradigm, the current replication represents a collaborative effort to evaluate this paradigm following pre-registration. In particular, we propose an online experimenter-present version inclusive of both the same- (e.g., WAFFLE) and independent-probe (e.g., TREE-M) tests in English-speaking healthy individuals using a direct suppression instruction.

Autobiographical memories involving the own body are likely an important factor in defining people’s body images. People with a negative body image may not only be more likely to recall negative/repulsive memories of their body, but also be motivated to avoid retrieving specific memories to prevent triggering aversive emotions (e.g., disgust). Such inclination to retain at a global level of memory recall may hamper the correction of their negative body image, thereby contributing to the persistence of body image concerns. In previous research using Autobiographical Memory Tests (AMTs) with minimal instructions we failed to find evidence for such an overgeneral memory bias specific to individuals with a negative body image, but observed an overall low memory specificity in response to body cue words. Therefore, the present study (N = 153) included a traditional AMT with extensive instructions next to a minimal instructions AMT condition. In addition, we explored the idea that episodic quality may be a memory characteristic that is relevant to avoidance and included episodic quality ratings next to memory specificity. Women with a relatively negative body image recalled relatively negative body-memories. Yet, in both conditions the findings failed to support our prediction that a more negative body image would also be associated with relatively low specificity or episodic quality ratings. Thus, the findings are consistent with the view that autobiographical memories might be an important factor in defining one’s body image, yet, cast doubt on the relevance of avoidant retrieval of body-related memories, at least in non-clinical samples.

Adults’ reports of earliest autobiographical memories from before the age of 3 are typically scarce. However, recent research suggests that the age range of this childhood amnesia is flexible when participant instructions provide a context in which earlier or later ages of childhood events are plausible (Kingo et al., 2013). This age manipulation may be more or less effective depending on the type of memories, i.e., event memories that describe a specific event, or fragments / snapshots that describe elements of a past event. One earlier study showed that after reading an early age example, the age in event memories was younger than after a late age example, whereas this difference was less pronounced in snapshot memories (Wessel et al., 2019). The present aim was to examine the malleability of the age in earliest childhood memories and replicate this age manipulation by memory type interaction as well as the overall effects of the age manipulation demonstrated earlier (Wessel et al., 2019). Three studies varied the age in example event memories and fragments (early, late, or no age). Overall, the results suggested that age information affects the reported age, but not necessarily more for event memories than for fragments. That is, all present studies failed to replicate the age manipulation by memory type interaction reflecting that relative to the early condition, event memories in the late condition were older than snapshot memories (Wessel et al., 2019). Even though we cannot conclude that a true effect does not exist, the original finding may be taken as reflecting a false positive.

We developed and examined the construct validity of the Disgust Avoidance Questionnaire (DAQ) as a measure of people’s inclination to prevent experiencing disgust (disgust prevention) and to escape from the experience of disgust (disgust escape). In a stepwise item-reduction (Study 1; N = 417) using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) based on a 4-subscale distinction (behavioral prevention, cognitive prevention, behavioral escape, cognitive escape), we selected 17 items from a pool of potential items. In order to incorporate the conceptual overlap between dimensions of disgust avoidance, focus (prevention vs. escape), and strategy (behavioral avoidance vs. cognitive avoidance), we specified an adapted model. In this model, we allowed each item to load on one type of dimension and one type of strategy, resulting in four overlapping factors (prevention, escape, behavioral avoidance, cognitive avoidance). Evaluation of this overlapping 4-factor model (Study 2; N = 513) using Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (ESEM) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) showed promising model fit indices, factor loadings, factor correlations, and reliability estimates for three of the four factors (prevention, behavioral avoidance, cognitive avoidance). Those three subscales also showed good convergent validity. In contrast, the results related to the escape factor may call the suitability of self-report to assess disgust escape into question. In light of the exploratory nature of the project, future examinations of the DAQ’s validity and applicability to more diverse samples are essential. A critical next step for future research would be to examine the DAQ’s criterion validity and the distinctive roles of the DAQ subscales in (clinical) psychological constructs and processes.

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is a widely used treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder. The idea behind EMDR is that lateral eye movements may mitigate the emotional impact of traumatic memories. Given the focus on changing patients' memories, it is important that EMDR practitioners have detailed knowledge about human memory. We explored beliefs and ideas about memory in samples of EMDR practitioners (Study 1: n = 12; Study 2: n = 41), students (Study 1: n = 35; Study 2: n = 24), and researchers (Study 2: n = 30). All groups seemed to be aware of the fallibility of memory. However, a majority of the surveyed EMDR practitioners (70-90%), students (around 90%), and researchers (66.7%) endorsed the controversial idea of repressed memories. Skepticism and endorsement of problematic ideas about memory-related topics may coexist within the same group. In clinical settings, this might be problematic, because a strong belief in repressed memories might lead therapists to suggestively seek for such memories in patients.

We developed and examined the construct validity of the Disgust Avoidance Questionnaire (DAQ) as a measure of people’s inclination to prevent experiencing disgust (disgust prevention) and to escape from the experience of disgust (disgust escape). In a stepwise item-reduction (Study 1; N = 417) using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) based on a 4-subscale distinction (behavioral prevention, cognitive prevention, behavioral escape, cognitive escape), we selected 17 items from a pool of potential items. In order to incorporate the conceptual overlap between dimensions of disgust avoidance, focus (prevention vs. escape), and strategy (behavioral avoidance vs. cognitive avoidance), we specified an adapted model. In this model, we allowed each item to load on one type of dimension and one type of strategy, resulting in four overlapping factors (prevention, escape, behavioral avoidance, cognitive avoidance). Evaluation of this overlapping 4-factor model (Study 2; N = 513) using Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (ESEM) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) showed promising model fit indices, factor loadings, factor correlations, and reliability estimates for three of the four factors (prevention, behavioral avoidance, cognitive avoidance). Those three subscales also showed good convergent validity. In contrast, the results related to the escape factor may call the suitability of self-report to assess disgust escape into question. In light of the exploratory nature of the project, future examinations of the DAQ’s validity and applicability to more diverse samples are essential. A critical next step for future research would be to examine the DAQ’s criterion validity and the distinctive roles of the DAQ subscales in (clinical) psychological constructs and processes.

Adopting Registered Reports is an important step for the European Journal of Psychotraumatology to promote open science practices in the field of psychotrauma research. However, adopting these practices requires us as individual researchers to change our perspective fundamentally. We need to put fears of being scooped aside, adopt a permissive stance towards making mistakes and accept that null-results should be part of the scientific record. Journal policies that reinforce openness and transparency can facilitate such an attitude change in individual researchers.

Consistent with the view that disgust might be involved in persistent body dissatisfaction, there is preliminary evidence showing a positive correlation between measures of negative body image and indices of both trait disgust and self-directed disgust. In two correlational studies among undergraduates (N = 577 and N = 346, respectively) we aimed at replicating and extending these findings by testing a series of critical relationships, which follow from our hypotheses that 1) trait disgust propensity would increase the risk of developing a negative body image by increasing the likelihood of feeling self-disgust, and 2) trait disgust sensitivity would heighten the impact of self-disgust on the development of persistent negative body appraisals. Replicating previous research, both studies showed that negative body image was positively related to self-disgust, disgust propensity and disgust sensitivity. Mediation analyses showed that, in line with our model, self-disgust partly accounted for the association between disgust propensity and negative body image. Although disgust sensitivity showed an independent relationship with body image, disgust sensitivity did not moderate the association between self-disgust and negative body image. All in all, findings are consistent with the view that self-disgust-induced avoidance may contribute to persistent negative body appraisals.

In de negentiger jaren werd fel gedebatteerd over de vraag hoe het kon dat sommige volwassenen in psychotherapie ontdekten dat ze als kind seksueel waren misbruikt, terwijl ze daar jarenlang niets van hadden geweten. Eén van de stellingen in dit debat was dat de opvattingen van therapeuten over het geheugen de kans op fictieve herinneringen vergroten. Dit artikel gaat over de vraag hoe EMDR therapeuten tegenwoordig over het geheugen denken. In de week voorafgaand aan de ALV van 29 maart 2018 gaven 492 leden van de VEN hun mening over 22 stellingen.

Ik behandel een zestigjarige man en heb hem nu twee keer gezien. Onlangs is vast komen te staan dat al zijn zussen zijn misbruikt door hun opa, hun vader en hun oom. Hij zegt verdrietig te zijn om het lijden van zijn zussen en hij vraagt zich af of er met hem misschien ook iets is gebeurd dat hij heeft verdrongen. Hij heeft een blanco psychiatrische voorgeschiedenis en hij heeft geen herinneringen aan traumatische gebeurtenissen.

Previous work suggests that the estimated age in adults' earliest autobiographical memories depends on age information implied by the experimental context [e.g., Kingo, O. S., Bohn, A.,Krøjgaard, P. (2013). Warm-up questions on early childhood memories affect the reported age of earliest memories in late adolescence. Memory, 21(2), 280-284. doi: 10.1080/09658211.2012.729598 ] and that the age in decontextualised snippets of memory is younger than in more complete accounts (i.e., event memories [Bruce, D., Wilcox-O'Hearn, L. A., Robinson, J. A., Phillips-Grant, K., Francis, L.,Smith, M. C. (2005). Fragment memories mark the end of childhood amnesia. MemoryCognition, 33(4), 567-576. doi: 10.3758/BF03195324 ]). We examined the malleability of the estimated age in undergraduates' earliest memories and its relation with memory quality. In Study 1 (n = 141), vignettes referring to events happening at age 2 rendered earlier reported ages than examples referring to age 6. Exploratory analyses suggested that event memories were more sensitive to the age manipulation than memories representing a single, isolated scene (i.e., snapshots). In Study 2 (n = 162), asking self-relevant and public-event knowledge questions about participants' preschool years prior to retrieval yielded comparable average estimated ages. Both types of semantic knowledge questions rendered earlier memories than a no-age control task. Overall, the reported age in snapshots was younger than in event memories. However, age-differences between memory types across conditions were not statistically significant. Together, the results add to the growing literature indicating that the average age in earliest memories is not as fixed as previously thought.

Research on collaborative remembering suggests that collaboration hampers group memory (i.e., collaborative inhibition), yet enhances later individual memory. Studies examining collaborative effects on memory for emotional stimuli are scarce, especially concerning later individual memory. In the present study, female undergraduates watched an emotional movie and recalled it either collaboratively (n=60) or individually (n=60), followed by an individual free recall test and a recognition test. We replicated the standard collaborative inhibition effect. Further, in line with the literature, the collaborative condition displayed better post-collaborative individual memory. More importantly, in post-collaborative free recall, the centrality of the information to the movie plot did not play an important role. Recognition rendered slightly different results. Although collaboration rendered more correct recognition for more central details, it did not enhance recognition of background details. Secondly, the collaborative and individual conditions did not differ with respect to overlap of unique correct items in free recall. Yet, during recognition former collaborators more unanimously endorsed correct answers, as well as errors. Finally, extraversion, neuroticism, social anxiety, and depressive symptoms did not moderate the influence of collaboration on memory. Implications for the fields of forensic and clinical psychology are discussed.

According to the CaRFAX model (Williams et al., 2007), several processes may result in overgeneral autobiographical memory. The present study examined whether the type of cue used in the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT) is important for illuminating relationships between autobiographical memory specificity and variables pertinent to the Functional Avoidance (FA) and Capture and Rumination (CaR) aspects of the model. Sixty-one women varying in their experience of a potentially traumatic event and previous depression completed two versions of the AMT: one containing affective cues and the other containing cues representing idiosyncratic self-discrepancies. Consistent with the FA hypothesis, avoidance of the potentially traumatic event was associated with fewer specific memories on the affective, but not the self-discrepant AMT. Furthermore, in line with the CaR hypothesis, performance on the self-discrepant, but not the affective AMT was related to ruminative self-reflection in women reporting previous depression, even after controlling for current depression and education levels. Together the results suggest that varying cue type may increase the sensitivity of the AMT, depending on the aspect of the CaRFAX model of overgeneral memory that is to be addressed. © 2013 Taylor and Francis.

Background and objectives: Reduced autobiographical memory specificity (rAMS), experiencing intrusive memories, and rumination appear to be risk factors for depression and depressive relapse. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether a weak resistance to proactive interference (PI) might underlie this trio of cognitive risk factors. Resistance to PI refers to being able to ignore cognitive distracters that were previously relevant but became irrelevant for current task goals.Method: Students (N = 65) and depressed patients (N = 37) completed tasks measuring resistance to PI and AMS, and completed questionnaires on intrusive memories and rumination.Results: In both samples, weaker resistance to PI was associated with rAMS. There was no evidence for a relationship between resistance to PI and intrusive memories or rumination.Limitations: As we did not assess other measures of executive functioning, we cannot conclude whether the observed relationship between rumination and PI is due to unique qualities of PI.Conclusions: Difficulties to deliberately recall specific, rather than general or categoric autobiographical memories appear to be related to more general problems with the inhibition of interference of mental distracters. The results are in line with the executive control account of rAMS. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Collaborative inhibition refers to the phenomenon that when several people work together to produce a single memory report, they typically produce fewer items than when the unique items in the individual reports of the same number of participants are combined (i.e., nominal recall). Yet, apart from this negative effect, collaboration may be beneficial in that group members remove errors from a collaborative report. Collaborative inhibition studies on memory for emotional stimuli are scarce. Therefore, the present study examined both collaborative inhibition and collaborative error reduction in the recall of the details of emotional material in a laboratory setting. Female undergraduates (n = 111) viewed a film clip of a fatal accident and subsequently engaged in either collaborative (n = 57) or individual recall (n = 54) in groups of three. The results show that, across several detail categories, collaborating groups recalled fewer details than nominal groups. However, overall, nominal recall produced more errors than collaborative recall. The present results extend earlier findings on both collaborative inhibition and error reduction to the recall of affectively laden material. These findings may have implications for the applied fields of forensic and clinical psychology.

Stimuli with strong affective valence capture attention. This can impede the self-regulation of impulses. That is, preoccupation with a tempting stimulus such as alcohol may lead to a continued activation of automatic affective responses to that stimulus, increasing the likelihood of approach and consumption. Self-regulation may, thus, benefit from variables that weaken the relation between salient stimuli and cognitive preoccupation with those stimuli. Recent research shows that mindfulness and executive control reduce the link between automatic affective responses to alcohol and alcohol consumption. In this study, the authors examined whether mindfulness and executive control may similarly decouple the relation between automatic affective responses and difficulty in disengaging attention from alcohol-related thoughts. Participants completed measures of trait mindfulness, executive control (a working memory task), automatic alcohol-valence associations, and preoccupation with alcohol-related thoughts. Results showed that (a) both trait mindfulness and executive control are inversely related with alcohol preoccupation, and (b) both mindfulness and executive control weaken a positive relation between automatic alcohol-valence associations and alcohol preoccupation.

Patients suffering from anxiety disorders have been shown to infer danger on the basis of their anxiety responses "if heel anxious, there must be danger." This tendency logically hampers the identification of false alarms and may thus act in a way to confirm the a priori threat value of the feared stimuli/situations. Since disgust is assumed to play a critical role in the persistence of contamination fears in OCD, the question rises whether individuals suffering from fear of contamination perhaps similarly infer danger on the basis of their disgust response: "If I feel disgusted, it must be contagious." Therefore, this study tested whether indeed disgust-based reasoning might be involved in fear of contamination. On the basis of the contamination fear subscale of the Padua Inventory (PI), we selected a group of participants scoring higher than the established clinical range (n = 31, PI > 13) and a group of participants low (n = 27, PI

We explored the predictive value of age, language ability and rehearsal for performance on various indices of long-term (episodic) memory in early childhood. Preschoolers engaged in a unique treasure-hunt experience. One year later, we tested recall, pictorial recognition and temporal ordering of event-related photographs. Relative to four-year-olds, five-year-olds performed better with respect to recall and temporal ordering, but not recognition. Rehearsal was associated with better recall and temporal ordering. Interestingly, poorer language ability at the time of the initial experience was related to better recognition. Perhaps a more perceptual type of processing at encoding especially benefits performance on tests reinstating the physical aspects of an experience, whereas post-event rehearsal keeps a memory alive in a more narrative form.

Research suggests that rumination is a causal factor for intrusive memories. These are disturbing autobiographical memories that pop into one's mind involuntarily, spontaneously, and repetitively. A three-wave longitudinal study was conducted to replicate this finding and to test whether one route via which rumination leads to (an increase in) intrusive memories is via depressed affect. Secondary school students (n?=?72) filled out self-report questionnaires measuring their level of rumination, depressive symptoms (DS), and intrusive memories. These were administered at three different points, with 3 weeks in between each measurement. Two types of rumination were measured, that is, depressive rumination and rumination in response to intrusions. Both bootstrapping analyses and cross-lagged analyses yielded evidence for DS as a partial mediator of the relationship between rumination and intrusion frequency. Both depressive rumination and rumination about the content of intrusive memories seemed to be maladaptive: They may exacerbate negative emotions, which in turn trigger intrusive memories. Ruminative thinking also directly led to (an increase in) intrusive memories. These findings might suggest that people suffering from intrusive memories may benefit not only from therapies directly aimed at reducing intrusions but also from therapies aimed at reducing rumination and DS.

To assess prevalence and risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression in fathers after early preeclampsia (PE) or preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM). Partners of patients hospitalized for PE or PPROM and partners of healthy controls completed PTSD (PSS-SR) and depression (BDI-II) questionnaires during pregnancy (t 1) and 6 weeks postpartum (t 2). 85 of the 187 eligible men participated (51 partners of patients, 34 partners of control) at t 1, and 66 men participated both time points. No significant differences were found between partners of patients and partners of controls in symptoms of PTSD and depression (t 1: p = 0.28 for PTSD and p = 0.34 for depression; t 2: p = 0.08 for PTSD and p = 0.31 for depression). For partners of patients, correlation between PTSD and depression sum-scores was 0.48 (p

Depressed patients commonly experience intrusive memories. There is some evidence that ruminative responses to those intrusions are important for maintaining depressive symptoms. Three models concerning the interplay of intrusions and rumination in the prediction of depressive symptoms were tested in students in 2 studies (N = 711): (a) rumination moderating between intrusions and depressive symptoms, (b) rumination partially mediating between intrusions and depressive symptoms, and (c) intrusions partially mediating between rumination and depressive symptoms. In our first, cross-sectional study, evidence was found for all models. In our second study, depressive symptoms were also measured prospectively. As for concurrent symptoms, we again found support for the mediation models but not for the moderation model. As for prospective symptoms, we only found evidence for the moderation model. Our findings suggest that rumination and intrusions are mutually reinforcing and that rumination about intrusions indeed contributes to the maintenance of depressive symptoms.

The present experimental analogue study used computerised attention training to investigate the role of attention bias in the prediction of intrusive memories. After exposure to a trauma film, participants in a training group (n = 22) were presented with a variant of the exogenic cueing task (ECT) in which visual film reminders (i.e., stills from the trauma film) were always presented during invalid and neutral control stimuli always during valid trials. The purpose of this cue-ocation contingency was reinforcing the direction of attention away from film reminders. Control participants (n = 23) performed a similar training without such a contingency. Post-training processing bias was assessed with a single target Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) task, in which trauma-film reminders served as task-irrelevant distracters appearing shortly before a neutral target. The frequency of film-related intrusions was recorded in a take-home diary and at a follow-up session three days after film viewing. Participants who underwent attention training reported fewer film-related intrusions and showed less interference by visual film distracters than controls. Implications for research on attention bias after real-life trauma are discussed.

Although intrusive imagery is a common response in the aftermath of a stressful or traumatic event, only a minority of trauma victims show persistent re-experiencing and related psychopathology. Individual differences in pre-trauma executive control possibly play a critical role. Therefore, this study investigated whether a relatively poor pre-stressor ability to resist proactive interference in working memory might increase risk for experiencing undesirable intrusive memories after being exposed to a stressful event. Non-clinical participants (N = 85) completed a modified version of a widely used test of interference control in working memory (CVLT; Kramer and Delis 1991) and subsequently watched an emotional film fragment. Following presentation of the fragment, intrusive memories were recorded in a 1-week diary and at a follow up session 7 days later. A relatively poor ability to resist proactive interference was related to a relatively high frequency of film-related intrusive memories. This relationship was independent of neuroticism and gender. These findings are consistent with the idea that a pre-morbid deficit in the ability to resist proactive interference reflects a vulnerability factor for experiencing intrusive memories after trauma exposure.

Recently, information has emerged that formerly eclamptic women may suffer cognitive impairment. This may be related to cerebral white matter lesions. The few available reports demonstrate inconsistent results. We sought to elucidate cognitive performance after eclampsia in a pilot study. Twenty-six eclamptic, 20 preeclamptic, and 18 healthy parous women performed the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART; the ability to sustain mindful processing of repetitive stimuli that would otherwise lead to habituation) and the Random Number Generation Task (RNG; executive functioning, i.e., inhibition and updating/monitoring). Average age was 40 years, elapsed time since index pregnancy was 9 years. Education levels did not differ. There were no intercurrent illnesses. No significant differences were found on SART and RNG scores between groups. This study was not able to demonstrate evidence for impaired sustained attention and executive functioning after eclampsia. Studies including a much wider range of neurocognitive tests amplified to posterior brain regions with larger groups are necessary.

Relatively weak cognitive control existing prior to a stressful event may be associated with intrusive memories of that stressor afterwards. To test this possibility, we tested participants under circumstances that putatively decrease cognitive control and explored how this affected the relation between indices of cognitive control and intrusive memories. Evening type participants (N = 80) were tested at either an optimal or a non-optimal time of day. Tests of working memory capacity and inhibitory control were administered. Subsequently, participants saw an emotional film fragment and engaged in thought suppression afterwards. Results show different correlational patterns in time-of-testing groups. At non-optimal times there were negative, but relatively weak correlations between working memory capacity and intrusions. Better inhibitory control was associated with fewer intrusions during the initial minute of the thought suppression period and with fewer self-reported intrusions. At optimal times however, these correlations were absent. Working memory capacity even showed robust correlations in the opposite direction. These findings cast doubts on the suitability of indices of working memory capacity for testing the idea that relatively weak cognitive control is linked to intrusive memory phenomena. Specific measures of inhibitory control may prove to be more appropriate for testing this idea. (c) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Two experiments examined whether exposure to a trauma-film induced an attentional bias (AB) for intrinsically neutral (visual) reminders of the film. In experiment 1, half of the participants (n = 33) completed a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task after presentation of a trauma film, whereas the other participants (n = 32) engaged in this task without prior film-exposure. During the RSVP, participants were to detect neutral targets (rotated landscapes) in a stream of images that also included visual distracters consisting of stills depicting persons and objects that featured in the film as well as visual control distracters unrelated to the film. In line with predictions, participants who saw the film prior to the RSVP task showed a relatively strong deterioration of task performance when targets were preceded by film distracters. Results of a second experiment suggested that this AB could be best explained by an acquired motivational salience of the inherently neutral film reminders in the RSVP rather than by a mere familiarity effect. Thus, the current RSVP methodology seems to be a viable analogue method for studying AB after stressful or traumatic experiences. Copyright (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This study explored whether a relatively poor ability to resist or inhibit interference from irrelevant information in working memory is associated with experiencing undesirable intrusive memories. Non-selected participants (N = 91) completed a self-report measure of intrusive memories, and carried out experimental tasks intended to measure two different types of inhibition: resistance to proactive interference and response inhibition (i.e., the ability to prevent automatically triggered responses). The results showed a significant relationship between inhibition at the cognitive level (i.e., resistance to proactive interference) and the frequency of intrusive memories (especially in the group of female participants) whereas no such relationship with measures of response inhibition emerged. These findings are consistent with the idea that deficient inhibitory control reflects a vulnerability factor for experiencing intrusive memories. Implications for research investigating risk factors for the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are discussed. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

In his Memory Studies article `Seven Types of Forgetting', Connerton argues that forgetting on a cultural level is not a unitary phenomenon and that at least seven distinct types can be distinguished. In this commentary, we explore the potential utility of an alternative conceptualization from a psychology perspective. More specifically, we consider how a theoretical framework on individual autobiographical memory may be employed as a metaphor for exploring Connerton's ideas about the forgetting of cultural groups. This metaphor concentrates on commonalities rather than differences between the types of forgetting proposed.

This paper considers the concept of collective memory from an experimental clinical psychology perspective. Exploration of the term collective reveals a broad distinction between literatures that view collective memories as a property of groups (collectivistic memory) and those that regard these memories as a property of individuals who are, to a greater or lesser extent, an integral part of their social environment (social memory). First, we argue that the understanding of collectivistic memory phenomena may benefit from drawing parallels with current psychological models such as the self-memory system theory of individualistic autobiographical memory. Second, we suggest that the social memory literature may inform the study of trauma-related disorders. We argue that a factual focus induced by collaborative remembering may be beneficial to natural recovery in the immediate aftermath of trauma, and propose that shared remembering techniques may provide a useful addition to the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder.

The present study explored the idea that the tendency to experience intrusive memories might be associated with relatively weak cognitive control in general as indexed by the general propensity to become distracted by irrelevant information. A sample of undergraduate students (N = 413) filled in self-report measures of involuntary memories, distractibility, depression and repressive coping. The results showed a significant relation between involuntary memories and distractibility, independent of both trait depression and repressive coping, indicating a general vulnerability factor. As cognitive control may be sensitive to circadian variation, time of day effects in the experience of intrusions were also explored. No significant relation emerged. A proposed relationship between deficient inhibitory mechanisms of working memory and vulnerability for developing and maintaining intrusive memories after experiencing a stressful event is also discussed. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Participants tend to claim that nonfamous names refer to well-known people when they have previously been required to read these nonfamous names. This false fame effect originates from source monitoring errors. In two studies, we explored whether high levels of absorption or fantasy proneness are related to such source monitoring errors. While an overall false fame effect did occur, neither high absorption nor high fantasy prone participants were found to display a stronger false fame effect than participants low on these personality traits. Our findings suggest that the effects of these individual differences on false fame are in fact small and that the false fame effect is not the most suitable paradigm to study clinical relevant memory illusions. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Several studies suggest that intrusive and over general autobiographical memory are correlated. Thus, paradoxically, in some patients a hyper accessibility of memory for one (series of) event(s) goes hand-in-hand with a scarcity of memories for other personal experienes. This clinical observation is reminiscent of the laboratory phenomenon of retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF). This refers to the finding that repeatedly recalling some experimental stimuli impairs subsequent recall of related (i.e., tied to the same retrieval cue) stimuli. RIF of emotional autobiographical memories might provide an experimental model for the clinical memory phenomena in question. The present paper reports two experiments that explored the merits of applying the retrieval practice paradigm to relatively broad categories of autobiographical memories. Both studies found a significant RIF effect in that practised memories were recalled better than unrelated unpractised (baseline) memories. In addition, unpractised memories that were related to the practised memories were recalled more poorly than baseline memories. Implications of these findings for modelling the co-occurrence of intrusive and over-general memories are discussed.

Previous studies have shown a positive relationship between intrusions, effortful avoidance and overgeneral memory in people suffering from (mild) depression or PTSD. The purpose of the present study was to investigate these relationships in a non-clinical sample. As part of a mass testing session, a written version of the Autobiographical Memory Test was administered to 175 first-year psychology students. Furthermore, intrusion and avoidance symptoms were measured with the Impact of Event Scale (Horowitz, Wilner, & Alvarez, 1979), and depressive symptoms with the Beck Depression Inventory (Beck, Ward, Mendelson, Mock, & Erbaugh, 1961). The data demonstrated a significant correlation between avoidance symptoms and categoric memory to negative cue words. This relationship remained significant after controlling for depressive symptoms. These results concur with other findings that overgeneral memory tends to be related to symptoms of effortful avoidance. Copyright (c) 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The list-method directed forgetting (DF) paradigm has attracted the attention of clinical psychologists because it is widely believed that a retrieval inhibition mechanism underlies its effects. Thus, the idea is that people are capable of intentionally forgetting negative emotional material. On the other hand, there are reasons to believe that negative stimuli are relatively resistant to forgetting. The present experiment compared listwise DF of emotional and neutral words in healthy college students. A modified procedure (i.e., a simulated computer crash) showed a reliable DF-effect in that list 1 recall was larger under remember than forget instructions whereas the reverse was true for list 2 recall. Emotionality did not modulate the magnitude of this effect. Thus, negative emotional material is not resistant to forgetting. Although overall, the present findings are in line with a retrieval inhibition interpretation (i.e., decreased access to list 1 material), attentional focusing during list 2 learnin...

Contains fulltext : 55196.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) Contains fulltext : 55196.pdf (Unknown ) (Open Access) Objectives. In the present prospective study, the relationship between autobiographical memory specificity and the emotional reactions to a stressful event was investigated. Design and methods. The Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT) was administered to 74 women before they underwent an in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment which subsequently failed. Symptoms of emotional reactions - depression and anxiety were measured both before and after the (failed) IVF treatment. Results. It was found that the number of reported specific memories at baseline was negatively related to depressive and anxiety symptoms after the treatment, even when initial depressive and anxiety symptoms and verbal fluency were controlled for. Conclusions. Taken together, the findings indicate that a lack of autobiographical memory specificity predicts changes in depressive mood after a stressful event. 12 p.

The present study examined whether high and low dissociative individuals differ in their ability to keep target stimuli out of their awareness (suppression) and how this relates to their memory of those targets during a later cued recall task. The prediction was that high dissociators display a general inability to focus attention and that their distractibility undermines successful suppression, thereby enhancing memory for suppressed items. College students with high (n = 35) and low (n = 33) scores on the Dissociative Experiences Scale participated in a Dutch version of Anderson and Green's (2001) Think-No Think (TNT) task. Overall, a significant suppression effect emerged. However, no differences between high and low dissociators were observed. Thus, the present results do not confirm that dissociation is linked to heightened distractibility. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.