Memory distortion for traumatic events: the role of mental imagery.

Deryn Strange,Melanie K T Takarangi

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2015.00027

Abstract

Trauma memories – like all memories – are malleable and prone to distortion. Indeed, there is growing evidence – from both field and lab-based studies – to suggest that the memory distortion follows a particular pattern. People tend to remember more trauma than they experienced, and those who do, tend to exhibit more of the “re-experiencing” symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Our own research suggests that the likely mechanism underlying that distortion is a failure in people’s source monitoring. After a traumatic experience, intentional remembering (effortful retrieval) and unintentional remembering (intrusive mental imagery) can introduce new details that, over time, assimilate into a person’s memory for the event. We believe that understanding the role these factors play in distorting people’s memories for traumatic experiences is both theoretically and practically important, particularly given their potential role in influencing people’s recovery.

Highlights

Trauma memories – like all memories – are malleable and prone to distortion
We provide an overview of the source monitoring framework [SMF; [3, 4]], the evidence for traumatic memory distortion, and the role that we propose source monitoring errors, imagery-based errors, play in promoting traumatic memory distortion
And in line with the SMF, Crombag et al opined that traumatic events might be more susceptible to memory distortion than benign events because they typically provide more avenues for mental imagery, which can make source monitoring more difficult, and source monitoring errors more likely to occur [3, 4]

Summary

Introduction

Trauma memories – like all memories – are malleable and prone to distortion. there is growing evidence – from both field and lab-based studies – to suggest that the memory distortion follows a particular pattern. Memory distortion for traumatic events appears to follow a particular pattern: people tend to remember more trauma than they experienced, a phenomenon referred to as “memory amplification.” memory amplification carries real consequences: the more amplification people demonstrate, the more likely they are to report the “re-experiencing” symptoms associated with PTSD, such as intrusive thoughts and images [e.g., [1, 2]]. Traumatic experiences are frequently rehearsed in unintentional ways via intrusive images, thoughts, and memories; the “re-experiencing symptoms” typically associated with PTSD [e.g., [9]].

Results

Conclusion