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Comment
. 2014 Mar;45(1):217-9.
doi: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2013.07.011. Epub 2013 Aug 6.

Contextualisation in the revised dual representation theory of PTSD: a response to Pearson and colleagues

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Comment

Contextualisation in the revised dual representation theory of PTSD: a response to Pearson and colleagues

Chris R Brewin et al. J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry. 2014 Mar.

Abstract

Three recent studies (Pearson, 2012; Pearson, Ross, & Webster, 2012) purported to test the revised dual representation theory of posttraumatic stress disorder (Brewin, Gregory, Lipton, & Burgess, 2010) by manipulating the amount of additional information accompanying traumatic stimulus materials and assessing the effect on subsequent intrusive memories. Here we point out that these studies involve a misunderstanding of the meaning of "contextual" within the theory, such that the manipulation would be unlikely to have had the intended effect and the results are ambiguous with respect to the theory. Past and future experimental tests of the theory are discussed.

Keywords: Context; Intrusion; Memory; PTSD.

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References

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