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. 2008 Nov;137(4):591-614.
doi: 10.1037/a0013165.

Memory in posttraumatic stress disorder: properties of voluntary and involuntary, traumatic and nontraumatic autobiographical memories in people with and without posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms

David C Rubin  1 , Adriel Boals, Dorthe Berntsen
Affiliations

Memory in posttraumatic stress disorder: properties of voluntary and involuntary, traumatic and nontraumatic autobiographical memories in people with and without posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms

David C Rubin et al. J Exp Psychol Gen. 2008 Nov.

Abstract

One hundred fifteen undergraduates rated 15 word-cued memories and their 3 most negatively stressful, 3 most positive, and 7 most important events and completed tests of personality and depression. Eighty-nine also recorded involuntary memories online for 1 week. In the first 3-way comparisons needed to test existing theories, comparisons were made of memories of stressful events versus control events and involuntary versus voluntary memories in people high versus low in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity. For all participants, stressful memories had more emotional intensity, more frequent voluntary and involuntary retrieval, but not more fragmentation. For all memories, participants with greater PTSD symptom severity showed the same differences. Involuntary memories had more emotional intensity and less centrality to the life story than voluntary memories. Meeting the diagnostic criteria for traumatic events had no effect, but the emotional responses to events did. In 533 undergraduates, correlations among measures were replicated and the Negative Intensity factor of the Affect Intensity Measure correlated with PTSD symptom severity. No special trauma mechanisms were needed to account for the results, which are summarized by the autobiographical memory theory of PTSD.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic of the design needed and used to more fully explore the effects of PTSD on memory .
Figure 2
Figure 2
The increase in scores on standard individual differences tests as a function of PTSD symptom severity as measured by the PCL. The BDI, CES, DES, DTS, NEO-N, and PCL refer to the Beck Depression Index, the Centrality of Event Scale, the Dissociate Experiences Scale, the Davidson Trauma Scale, the Neuroticism scale of the NEO personality inventory, and the PTSD Check List from Study 1.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The increase in scores of emotional intensity and physiological reaction ratings for the three most negatively stressful memories, as a function of PTSD symptom severity as measured by the PCL from Study 1.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The increase in scores of Negative Intensity, the BDI and CES, as a function of PTSD symptom severity as measured by the PCL from Study 3.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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