The COVID-19 pandemic does not fit into prevailing Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) models, or diagnostic criteria, yet emerging research shows traumatic stress symptoms as a result of this ongoing global stressor. Current pathogenic event models focus on past, and largely direct, trauma exposure to certain kinds of life-threatening events. Yet, traumatic stress reactions to future, indirect trauma exposure, and non-Criterion A events exist, suggesting COVID-19 is also a traumatic stressor which could lead to PTSD symptomology. To examine this idea, we asked a sample of online participants (N = 1,040), in five western countries, to indicate the COVID-19 events they had been directly exposed to, events they anticipated would happen in the future, and other forms of indirect exposure such as through media coverage. We then asked participants to complete the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist-5, adapted to measure pre/peri/post-traumatic reactions in relation to COVID-19. We also measured general emotional reactions (e.g., angry, anxious, helpless), well-being, psychosocial functioning, and depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms. We found participants had PTSD-like symptoms for events that had not happened and when participants had been directly (e.g., contact with virus) or indirectly exposed to COVID-19 (e.g., via media). Moreover, 13.2% of our sample were likely PTSD-positive, despite types of COVID-19 “exposure” (e.g., lockdown) not fitting DSM-5 criteria. The emotional impact of “worst” experienced/anticipated events best predicted PTSD-like symptoms. Taken together, our findings support emerging research that COVID-19 can be understood as a traumatic stressor event capable of eliciting PTSD-like responses and exacerbating other related mental health problems (e.g., anxiety, depression, psychosocial functioning, etc.). Our findings add to existing literature supporting a pathogenic event memory model of traumatic stress.

Researchers studying the misinformation effect tend to present the event in one of two formats: slides or video. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. Videos capture much more information than slides, but slides permit easy counterbalancing of event details. We capitalised on digital technology to create a misinformation event that resolves many of the limitations inherent in earlier formats.

We examined the influence of alcohol on remembering an interactive hypothetical sexual assault scenario in the laboratory using a balanced placebo design. Female participants completed a memory test 24 hours and 4 months later. Participants reported less information (i.e., responded 'don't know' more often to questions) if they were under the influence of alcohol during scenario encoding. The accuracy of the information intoxicated participants reported did not differ compared to sober participants, however, suggesting intoxicated participants were effectively monitoring the accuracy of their memory at test.Additionally, peripheral details were remembered less accurately than central details, regardless of intoxication level; and memory accuracy for peripheral details decreased by a larger amount compared to central details across the retention interval. Finally, participants were more accurate if they were told they were drinking alcohol rather than a placebo. We discuss theoretical implications for alcohol myopia and memory regulation, together with applied implications for interviewing intoxicated witnesses.Keywords: Alcohol myopia, sexual assault, memory monitoring and control, hypervigilance, intoxication Alcohol and remembering a hypothetical sexual assault: Can victims who were under the influence of alcohol during the offense provide accurate testimony?Serious violent offenses often involve intoxicated witnesses and victims (Evans, Schreiber Compo, & Russano, 2009;Palmer, Flowe, Takarangi, & Humphries, 2013). In sexual assault and rape cases 1 , especially, victims and perpetrators are likely to be under the ALCOHOL AND REMEMBERING SEXUAL ASSAULT 4 influence of alcohol (Brecklin & Ullman, 2002;Mohler-Kuo, Dowdall, Koss & Wechsler, 2004;Testa, 2002). Importantly, intoxicated sexual assault victims are less likely than their sober counterparts to report the offense to the police (e.g., Clay-Warner & Burt, 2005; WolitzkyTaylor et al., 2011). However, even among simple rape cases-involving acquaintances, no collateral injury, or no weapon use-that are reported and referred for prosecution, charges are less likely to be issued if the victim was drinking (Beichner & Spohn, 2012).Alcohol intoxication raises questions about the accuracy of testimony in the minds of criminal investigators (Cole & Logan, 2010). Similar concerns can also influence trial outcomes: Jurors (e.g., Evans & Schreiber Compo, 2010) and eyewitness experts (Kassin, Tubb, Hosch, & Memon, 2001) agree that intoxicated witnesses suffer memory impairment.But, can intoxicated people provide accurate information in legal settings? In the present study, we focused on alcohol and memory impairment in the sexual assault context. Our aims were twofold: we tested whether being under the influence of alcohol, or believing that one has consumed alcohol, would (1) differentially affect the quantity of information women reported about a simulated sexual assault, and (2) interact with other factors to influence the accuracy of women's memory for the sexu...

Research examining maladaptive responses to trauma routinely relies on spontaneous self-report to index intrusive thoughts, which assumes people accurately recognize and report their intrusive thoughts. However, "mind-wandering" research reveals people are not always meta-aware of their thought content: they often fail to notice shifts in their attention. In two experiments, we exposed subjects to trauma films, then instructed them to report intrusive thoughts during an unrelated reading task. Intermittently, we asked whether they were thinking about the trauma. As expected, subjects often spontaneously reported intrusive thoughts. However, they were also "caught" engaging in unreported trauma-oriented thoughts. The presence and frequency of intermittent probes did not influence self-caught intrusions. Both self-caught and probe-caught intrusions were related to an existing tendency toward intrusive cognition, film-related distress, and thought suppression attempts. Our data suggest people may lack meta-awareness of trauma-related thoughts, which has implications for theory, research and treatment relating to trauma-related psychopathology.

The COVID-19 pandemic does not fit into prevailing Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) models, or diagnostic criteria, yet emerging research shows traumatic stress symptoms as a result of this ongoing global stressor. Current pathogenic event models focus on past, and largely direct, trauma exposure to certain kinds of life-threatening events. Nevertheless, among a sample of online participants ( N = 1,040) in five western countries, we found participants had PTSD-like symptoms for events that had not happened and when participants had been directly (e.g., contact with virus) or indirectly exposed to COVID-19 (e.g., via media). Moreover, 13.2% of our sample were likely PTSD-positive, despite types of COVID-19 “exposure” (e.g., lockdown) not fitting DSM-5 criteria. The emotional impact of “worst” experienced/anticipated events best predicted PTSD-like symptoms. Our findings add to existing literature supporting a pathogenic event memory model of traumatic stress.