The Effects of Expressive and Experiential Suppression on Memory Accuracy and Memory Distortion in Women with and without PTSD

Abstract

Specific emotion regulation strategies impinge on cognitive resources, impairing memory accuracy; however, their effects on memory distortion have been largely unexamined. Further, little is known about the effects of emotion regulation on memory in individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), who exhibit both emotion regulation and memory difficulties. We examined the effects of expressive suppression (i.e., concealing visible signs of emotion), experiential suppression (i.e., suppressing the subjective emotional experience), and control instructions on memory accuracy and distortion in trauma-exposed individuals with PTSD, those without PTSD, and psychologically healthy controls. Expressive and, to a lesser degree, experiential suppression led to poorer memory accuracy and both expressive and experiential suppression led to less memory distortion compared to control instructions. Participants with and without PTSD did not significantly differ. Under high cognitive load, irrelevant details may receive more processing, potentially leading to lower accuracy but improved processing of source information, preventing memory distortion.