Abstract
Emergency service workers, military personnel, and journalists working in conflict zones are regularly exposed to trauma as part of their jobs and suffer higher rates of posttraumatic stress compared with the general population. These individuals often know that they will be exposed to trauma and therefore have the opportunity to adopt potentially protective cognitive strategies. One cognitive strategy linked to better mood and recovery from upsetting events is concrete information processing. Conversely, abstract information processing is linked to the development of anxiety and depression. We trained 50 healthy participants to apply an abstract or concrete mode of processing to six traumatic film clips and to apply this mode of processing to a posttraining traumatic film. Intrusive memories of the films were recorded for 1week and the Impact of Events Scale–Revised (IES-R; Weiss & Marmar, 1997) was completed at 1-week follow-up. As predicted, participants in the concrete condition reported significantly fewer intrusive memories in response to the films and had lower IES-R scores compared with those in the abstract condition. They also showed reduced emotional reactivity to the posttraining film. Self-reported proneness to intrusive memories in everyday life was significantly correlated with intrusive memories of the films, whereas trait rumination, trait dissociation, and sleep difficulties were not. Findings suggest that training individuals to adopt a concrete mode of information processing during analogue trauma may protect against the development of intrusive memories.
Highlights
Introduction47 participants (94%) reported at least one intrusive memory relating to the films
Of the whole sample, 47 participants (94%) reported at least one intrusive memory relating to the films
This study investigated the effect of adopting an abstract or concrete mode of processing during exposure to analogue trauma and the subsequent development of intrusive memories
Summary
47 participants (94%) reported at least one intrusive memory relating to the films. We conducted independent samples t tests to test our prediction that participants in the concrete condition would experience fewer intrusions during the following week and lower IES-R scores at 1-week follow-up. Participants in the concrete condition reported significantly fewer intrusive memories over the following week than those in the abstract condition, t(48) = 2.07, p = .044, d = 0.59, 95% CI [1.69, 4.53]. Participants in the concrete condition reported significantly lower IES-R scores than those in the abstract condition at 1-week follow-up, t(48) = 2.78, p = .009, d = 0.78, 95% CI [1.69, 10.95]
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