Low Attentional Control and the Development of Intrusive Memories Following a Laboratory Stressor

Abstract

This study tested whether low attentional control set people at risk for experiencing undesirable intrusions. Participants completed measures of attentional control and neuroticism and subsequently watched an emotional film fragment. In the four days following the presentation of the fragment, half of the participants (n=17) were asked to keep a diary for the registration of intrusive memories. The other half of the participants (n=16) only rated the number of intrusions retrospectively during the follow-up session. Low attentional control had independent predicting properties for the development of intrusive symptoms in the diary group. No such relationship was found in the no-diary controls, probably due to the relatively low frequency of intrusive symptoms that was elicited in this group.Keywords Attentional control . Intrusive memories . Neuroticism . Intrusion diary One of the hallmark symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the repeated occurrence of unwanted intrusive memories of the traumatic event. It appears that most people, after having experienced a traumatic situation, get rid of these overwhelming intrusive memories within one month (see Rothbaum et al. 1992), while a minority of them will stay highly vulnerable for cues triggering involuntary memories and will eventually develop PTSD. Considering this, vulnerability for persistent involuntary reliving of former traumatic events could imply a dysfunction in the mechanisms of memory control.Germane to this, a series of recent cross-sectional studies using analogue samples provided evidence indicating that a relatively low level of executive control over the contents of working memory (i.e., working memory capacity [WMC]) is associated with a relatively frequent occurrence of intrusive cognitions (Brewin & Beaton 2002;Brewin & Smart 2005;Klein & Boals 2001). It has been proposed that individual differences in WMC are related to a domaingeneral capability to control attention, which is particularly important in situations involving proactive interference or conflict between competing response tendencies (Engle 2002). For example, in a study with normal undergraduate students, the frequency of experiencing intrusive memories and attempts to avoid such memories were relatively high in people who scored relatively low on a behavioral index of WMC (i.e., Operation Span; Klein & Boals 2001). In line with this, it has been shown (Brewin & Beaton 2002;Brewin & Smart 2005) that individuals with a relatively high WMC are better able to suppress unwanted thoughts. Finally, using a self-report measure of distractibility (which might be taken as an index of deficient attentional control) it was found that people who described themselves as highly distractible also reported a relatively high frequency of intrusive memories (Verwoerd & Wessel 2007). These J Psychopathol Behav Assess (2008) 30:291-297 DOI 10.1007 This research was supported by grant 452-03-329 of the Foundation for Behavioral and Educational Sciences of the Netherlands Organiz...

Self reported attentional control with the Attentional Control Scale: Factor structure and relationship with symptoms of anxiety and depression

“…Verwoerd et al (2008) also found that lower ACS scores predicted increase in diary ratings of intrusive thoughts over four consecutive days after watching an emotional film fragment, supporting the predictive validity of the scale. Support has also been found with self-report questionnaires for the hypothesized interaction between attentional control and predisposing factors when predicting symptoms of psychopathology.…”

“…As would be expected, the total score of the ACS has moderate negative correlations with self-report measures of trait-anxiety (Derryberry & Reed, 2001, cited in Derryberry & Reed, 2002, neuroticism (Verwoerd et al, 2008) and depressive symptoms (Reinholdt-Dunne, Mogg, & Bradley, 2009). Verwoerd et al (2008) also found that lower ACS scores predicted increase in diary ratings of intrusive thoughts over four consecutive days after watching an emotional film fragment, supporting the predictive validity of the scale.…”

A virtual reality paradigm as an analogue to real-life trauma: its effectiveness compared with the trauma film paradigm

“…Clips from this movie induced intrusive memories in several studies (e.g. Schaich, Watkins, & Ehring, 2013;Verwoerd, De Jong, & Wessel, 2008). Furthermore, a variety of physiological measures (cortisol level, heart rate, and pupil dilation) confirmed successful stress induction for these particular four scenes (Henckens et al, 2009), and a longer version of the rape scene elicited a higher heart rate, more distress, and more intrusive memories than three other trauma films (Weidmann, Conradi, Gröger, Fehm, & Fydrich, 2009).…”

Is it mere distraction? Peri-traumatic verbal tasks can increase analogue flashbacks but reduce voluntary memory performance

“…Whether our speculation is borne out when other verbally interfering task are used immediately post-trauma should be tested. The scope of possible such deleterious effects soon after trauma requires delineation, and a range of potentially verbally/ conceptually interfering post-trauma tasks should be considered (see also for example Butler, Wells, & Dewick, 1995;Nixon, Cain, Nehmy, & Seymour, 2009;Verwoerd, de Jong, & Wessel, 2008). In the meantime, the current data suggest that verbal/conceptual interference during trauma encoding far from being beneficially distracting may actually have an undesired proliferation effect on flashbacks.…”