Abstract
Evidence from self-reports and laboratory studies suggests that recall of nontrauma autobiographical memories may be disturbed in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but investigations in everyday life are sparse. This study investigated unintentional nontrauma and trauma memories in trauma survivors with and without PTSD (N = 52), who kept an autobiographical memory diary for a week. We investigated whether unintentional nontrauma memories show an overgeneral memory bias and further memory abnormalities in people with PTSD, and whether unintentional trauma memories show distinct features. Compared to the no-PTSD group, the PTSD group recorded fewer nontrauma memories, which were more overgeneral, more often from before the trauma or related to the trauma, were perceived as distant, and led to greater dwelling. Trauma memories were more vivid, recurrent, and present and led to greater suppression and dwelling. Within the PTSD group, the same features distinguished trauma and nontrauma memories. Results are discussed regarding theories of autobiographical memory and PTSD.
Highlights
The posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) group predicted that a greater proportion of their everyday autobiographical memories would be trauma memories than the no-PTSD group, M = 52.7% (SD = 26.5%) versus M = 7.7% (SD = 11.7%), F(1, 49) = 62.36, p < .001, partial η2 =
The results indicate that overgeneral memory (OGM) bias is not restricted to intentional remembering, which is at odds with current theories suggesting that OGM does not apply to unintentional remembering (Williams et al, 2007)
The study showed for the first time that OGM bias in unintentional remembering is related to posttrauma psychopathology
Summary
ParticipantsAll participants had experienced a traumatic event that met Stressor Criterion A of the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSMIV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994), that is, an event that involved actual threat of death or serious injury or physical integrity to self or others and the individual responded with intense fear or helplessness. Exclusion criteria were head injury, psychosis, and drug abuse or dependence. 21 people were excluded for the following reasons: drug abuse or dependence (n = 9), subthreshold PTSD (n = 6), psychosis (n = 2), multiple trauma (n = 2), failure to understand the diary instruction (n = 1), and inability to fill in the diary because of severe depression (n = 1). The PTSD group comprised 26 participants who met the diagnostic criteria for PTSD as assessed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID; First, Spitzer, Gibbon, & Williams, 1995) and showed at least moderate PTSD symptom severity as indicated by a score of 17 or more on the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale (PDS; Foa, Cashman, Jaycox, & Perry, 1997). 12 participants in the PTSD group had at least one comorbid Axis I disorder (46.2%)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
