Trauma and Memory Research
Key Words:
o Autobiographical memory = refers to memories of events from one’s own life.
o Repressed memories = memories involving trauma or a deeply distressing event that
an individual has unconsciously forgotten.
o Overgeneral memory = a phenomenon that refers to difficulty retrieving specific
autobiographical memories.
Key Theories:
The CaR-FA-X Model – Williams et al (2007): model to explain overgeneral memory
which says there are 3 mechanisms to account for the effect: capture and
rumination, functional avoidance and impaired executive control:
- functional avoidance: the recollection of general descriptions may produce less
affect than the recollection of specific episodic memories, remaining at a more
general level of information reduces the impact of potentially emotional material.
Therefore, trauma survivors use functional avoidance of specific memories as a
coping strategy. Those with PTSD may be especially likely to avoid recalling trauma =
especially likely to keep memories general.
- impaired executive control: leading to non-specific autobiographical memory,
having consequences of impaired problem solving.
Key Studies:
McNally & Garaerts (2009): alternative explanation to repression, traumatic events
(especially in childhood) weren’t perceived as traumatic at the time, so if there
weren’t any cues to trigger the memory it may have been forgotten until it was
triggered later on, leading to a “recovered memory”.
Wagenaar & Groenweg (1990): examined court testimony of concentration camp
survivors that were testifying against someone from their time in the camp, the
court trial was 40 years after the crimes.
- found: high levels of detail in the survivors recall (remembering very small details).
- they fact checked what the p’s said and found: 42% recalled their entry date (within
a month), 90% recalled the offenders name and 53% recalled their camp registration
number.
Schelach & Nachson (2001): interviewed 5 Auschwitz survivors, found their open
narratives to be detailed, orderly and realistic and performance eon specific factual
questions were 60% accurate.
Merckelbach et al (2003): interviewed 29 concentration camp survivors, only 1 of
them reported a period of time when they couldn’t recall their time at the camp (it
was known that 1 p had a history of heavy drug use).
Peace et al (2008): 44 females wrote about a sexually traumatic event, a non-
sexually traumatic event and a positive emotional experience,
- found: the traumatic memories were more vivid and contained more sensory
, components. There was no difference in the coherence of the traumatic and non-
traumatic recollections.
Rubin et al (2006): one group of p’s with PTSD and another who have experienced
trauma but don’t have PTSD asked to describe 3 traumatic experiences, 3 positive
memories and 3 important memories,
- found on most measures that memories of trauma were equally as coherent as the
non-traumatic memories, both for the individuals with PTSD and without.
Porter et al (2003): altering memories in labs, p’s viewed either a highly positive,
neutral or negative scene and half were asked misleading questions,
- found: p’s in the highly negative condition recalled seeing the false detail 80% of
the time compared to p’s in the other 2 conditions recalling the false detail 40% of
the time.
Nourkova et al (2004): altering memories for real-world events, Russian p’s asked to
recall memories of either the 1999 attack on Moscow or 9/11 attack, 6 months later
they were asked to recall again and the researcher gave misleading information,
- found: (despite the Moscow attack being more emotional for the p’s) 12.5%
incorporated the misleading suggestion into their description of the Moscow attack
compared to none in the 9/11 attack.
Williams & Broadbent (1986): first discovered overgeneral memory as a feature of
some mental disorders, suicidal p’s had difficulty retrieving specific memories.
Williams 2007: establishing disorders in which overgeneral memory applies or
doesn’t:
- applies to major depressive disorder, affective disorders (e.g., bipolar disorder) and
sub-clinical levels of depression.
- doesn’t apply to social phobia, spider and blood phobias or generalised anxiety
disorder.
McNally et al (1995): found only veterans with PTSD has difficulty recalling specific
memories compared to those without PTSD.
Kuyken & Brewin (1995): found that the development of overgeneral memory after a
traumatic event was associated with other types of emotional disturbances related
to the trauma.
Graham et al (2014): refugee p’s had all experienced at least 1 traumatic event and
found that p’s with PTSD had fewer specific memories compared to those without
PTSD.
Humphries & Jobson (2012): sample of university students from Britain and China,
Chinese students overall had fewer specific memories and trauma exposure was
associated with fewer specific memories in both cultures.
Crane et al (2014): sample of 5000 adolescents and found exposure to a severe
traumatic event in middle of later childhood was associated with a greater likelihood
of demonstrating overgeneral memory.
Hermans et al (2005): students demonstrated autobiographical memories in
association to cue words and completed measures of avoidant strategies,
- found a more avoidant coping strategy was associated with reduced memory
specificity on the cue word task (evidence for functional avoidance).
Key Words:
o Autobiographical memory = refers to memories of events from one’s own life.
o Repressed memories = memories involving trauma or a deeply distressing event that
an individual has unconsciously forgotten.
o Overgeneral memory = a phenomenon that refers to difficulty retrieving specific
autobiographical memories.
Key Theories:
The CaR-FA-X Model – Williams et al (2007): model to explain overgeneral memory
which says there are 3 mechanisms to account for the effect: capture and
rumination, functional avoidance and impaired executive control:
- functional avoidance: the recollection of general descriptions may produce less
affect than the recollection of specific episodic memories, remaining at a more
general level of information reduces the impact of potentially emotional material.
Therefore, trauma survivors use functional avoidance of specific memories as a
coping strategy. Those with PTSD may be especially likely to avoid recalling trauma =
especially likely to keep memories general.
- impaired executive control: leading to non-specific autobiographical memory,
having consequences of impaired problem solving.
Key Studies:
McNally & Garaerts (2009): alternative explanation to repression, traumatic events
(especially in childhood) weren’t perceived as traumatic at the time, so if there
weren’t any cues to trigger the memory it may have been forgotten until it was
triggered later on, leading to a “recovered memory”.
Wagenaar & Groenweg (1990): examined court testimony of concentration camp
survivors that were testifying against someone from their time in the camp, the
court trial was 40 years after the crimes.
- found: high levels of detail in the survivors recall (remembering very small details).
- they fact checked what the p’s said and found: 42% recalled their entry date (within
a month), 90% recalled the offenders name and 53% recalled their camp registration
number.
Schelach & Nachson (2001): interviewed 5 Auschwitz survivors, found their open
narratives to be detailed, orderly and realistic and performance eon specific factual
questions were 60% accurate.
Merckelbach et al (2003): interviewed 29 concentration camp survivors, only 1 of
them reported a period of time when they couldn’t recall their time at the camp (it
was known that 1 p had a history of heavy drug use).
Peace et al (2008): 44 females wrote about a sexually traumatic event, a non-
sexually traumatic event and a positive emotional experience,
- found: the traumatic memories were more vivid and contained more sensory
, components. There was no difference in the coherence of the traumatic and non-
traumatic recollections.
Rubin et al (2006): one group of p’s with PTSD and another who have experienced
trauma but don’t have PTSD asked to describe 3 traumatic experiences, 3 positive
memories and 3 important memories,
- found on most measures that memories of trauma were equally as coherent as the
non-traumatic memories, both for the individuals with PTSD and without.
Porter et al (2003): altering memories in labs, p’s viewed either a highly positive,
neutral or negative scene and half were asked misleading questions,
- found: p’s in the highly negative condition recalled seeing the false detail 80% of
the time compared to p’s in the other 2 conditions recalling the false detail 40% of
the time.
Nourkova et al (2004): altering memories for real-world events, Russian p’s asked to
recall memories of either the 1999 attack on Moscow or 9/11 attack, 6 months later
they were asked to recall again and the researcher gave misleading information,
- found: (despite the Moscow attack being more emotional for the p’s) 12.5%
incorporated the misleading suggestion into their description of the Moscow attack
compared to none in the 9/11 attack.
Williams & Broadbent (1986): first discovered overgeneral memory as a feature of
some mental disorders, suicidal p’s had difficulty retrieving specific memories.
Williams 2007: establishing disorders in which overgeneral memory applies or
doesn’t:
- applies to major depressive disorder, affective disorders (e.g., bipolar disorder) and
sub-clinical levels of depression.
- doesn’t apply to social phobia, spider and blood phobias or generalised anxiety
disorder.
McNally et al (1995): found only veterans with PTSD has difficulty recalling specific
memories compared to those without PTSD.
Kuyken & Brewin (1995): found that the development of overgeneral memory after a
traumatic event was associated with other types of emotional disturbances related
to the trauma.
Graham et al (2014): refugee p’s had all experienced at least 1 traumatic event and
found that p’s with PTSD had fewer specific memories compared to those without
PTSD.
Humphries & Jobson (2012): sample of university students from Britain and China,
Chinese students overall had fewer specific memories and trauma exposure was
associated with fewer specific memories in both cultures.
Crane et al (2014): sample of 5000 adolescents and found exposure to a severe
traumatic event in middle of later childhood was associated with a greater likelihood
of demonstrating overgeneral memory.
Hermans et al (2005): students demonstrated autobiographical memories in
association to cue words and completed measures of avoidant strategies,
- found a more avoidant coping strategy was associated with reduced memory
specificity on the cue word task (evidence for functional avoidance).
