Memory 2 - controlling memories in PTSD Flashcards
(10 cards)
To what extent do people with PTSD have difficulties controlling memories?
background and para focuses
PTSD - Trauma- and stressor-related disorders (DSM-5). Symptoms for at least 1 mth.
Intrusion symptoms e.g. recurrent, involuntary, uncontrollable, and intrusive distressing memories
And impaired ability to retrieve important details of the event experience
Emotional arousal affects voluntary and involuntary memory differently
Difficult to explain on a ‘basic mechanisms’ account (e.g. Rubin et al. 2008)
Involuntary and voluntary memories
dual representation of PTSD
interventions
- To what extent do people with PTSD have difficulties controlling memories?
involuntary and voluntary memories
Ehlers & clark…
Involuntary memories of trauma (flashbacks) are hallmark feature of PTSD. These typically involve a very strong sense of ‘re-experiencing’ some aspect of the trauma in a highly vivid manner (Ehlers & Clark, 2000).
In addition, clinical reports of PTSD sometimes refer to difficulty in intentionally retrieving aspects of the event experience (Ehlers & Clark, 2000), This term ‘dissociative amnesia’, is evident through voluntary memories that are disorganised and fragmented and missing important details. It appears that involuntary memories become highly accessible and become easily triggered without intention but voluntary memories of the experience are less accessible.
- To what extent do people with PTSD have difficulties controlling memories?
involuntary and voluntary memories - research to challenges this idea
Bernsten & rubin…
There are also challenges to special mechanism and controlling memory from:
Berntsen & Rubin (2008); Malaktaris & Lynn (2019) – little evidence for fragmentation in voluntary memory
- To what extent do people with PTSD have difficulties controlling memories?
Dual representation account of PTSD part 1 explaining
Some accounts have been proposed to explain the fragmented voluntary memories and recurrent intrusive memories such as the dual representation account by Brewin et al. (1996).This model suggests that traumatic experiences are represented in two different memories – verbally accessible memories and situationally accessible memories.
VAMs can be considered to function in the same way as AM’s but SAMs (sensory info not consciously processed during encoding) fail to integrate into our AM narrative due to sensory, therefore these details are not accessible to voluntary retrieval. Instead, they are automatically triggered by a feature of the experience and are experiences as involuntary memories.
- To what extent do people with PTSD have difficulties controlling memories?
alternative approach to DRM - basic
Rubin…
According to the model, intrusive memories in PTSD cannot be explained by standard theories of LTM. Instead, they argue that memories for traumatic events are processed differently, which led to traumatic events being reffered to as ‘special mechanism’. This contrasts with Rubin et al (2008) view of a ‘basic mechanism’.
The basic mechanism view posits that PTSD symptoms can be understood through basic principles of LTM. From this principle, trauma memories should conform to same principles that influence other forms of AM. This approach also suggests that the emotional arousal should have corresponding effects on voluntary and involuntary memories. This is not in line with clinical reports of fragmented voluntary memories and recurrent intrusive memories that are featured in the diagnostic criteria.
- To what extent do people with PTSD have difficulties controlling memories?
research to support Dual representation model
Holmes..
This is challenged by research by Holmes et al (2004) - (also indirectly supports dual representation model). Holmes et al. (2004) used a trauma film paradigm which involved stimulating a traumatic experience through highly stressful film footage. Across many studies they managed to induce some of the effects of real trauma experience such as recurrent intrusive memories (Holmes et al, 2008).
Holmes et al. (2004) findings are in line with the assumptions of the dual representation model. Participants were asked to keep a diary and they found that those who completed a visuo-spatial task after watching the film reported fewer emotional intrusive memories than those who completed a verbal task after viewing. Holmes et al. (2009) argue that the visuo-spatial task reduced the likelihood that the traumatic experience will be represented by SAM’s as this task disrupts SAMs coding. Whereas the verbal task interferes with the coding of VAM system and as info in SAMs is assumed to be retrieved involuntarily as intrusions, which could explain these findings. Thus, indirectly supporting the notion of SAM and VAMs.
- To what extent do people with PTSD have difficulties controlling memories?
interventions showing its possible to control memories - research
Holmes…
Interventions developed by Holmes et al. (2009) support the notion that we can potentially prevent flashbacks (control memory). By encouraging SAMs to form via an intervention shortly after a traumatic event, flashbacks may be reduced.
Holmes et al (2009) conducted studies using trauma film paradigm with non-clinical participants who after the film had to sit quietly for 10 minutes whilst another group played Tetris (visuospatial task) and is easy to administer following trauma. The found that those in the Tetris group had significant less intrusive trauma memories than those who sat quietly. At the follow up a week later, the Tetris group reported less symptoms than the other group.
- To what extent do people with PTSD have difficulties controlling memories?
critical eval of interventions showing its possible to control memories
However, there are questions around whether we could use this as an intervention in the real world? Due to the timing of the Tetris task in Holmes et al’s (2009) study – it was shortly after the truamatic experience which is not viable in real life straight after a traumatic experience.
- To what extent do people with PTSD have difficulties controlling memories?
support from real life interventions showing its possible to control memories - research
Hosch…
Also recent research suggests these findings extend to real life trauma such as a cesarean (Horsch et al., 2017). Therefore there is the possibility memory for trauma can be controlled.
- To what extent do people with PTSD have difficulties controlling memories?
conclusions and further research statement
The dual-representation model claims to account for important clinical symptoms, and indicates that, for at least some types of affective experience, we must appeal to special mechanisms to account for the observed effects of emotion.
Further research to understand the true nature of emotional memory in the real-world is needed to gain a full understanding of human memory.
