Remembering, forgetting, and the effects of trauma on memory: a developmental psychopathology perspective

A developmental psychopathology framework, with its emphasis on an interdisciplinary perspective, the interplay between work conducted with normal and atypical populations, and its focus on investigating functioning in multiple domains of development concurrently, possesses significant potential for advancing work on memory and trauma. A brief historical overview of memory and trauma is provided. Significant issues are highlighted that must be confronted in order to advance the understanding of the effects of trauma on memory and the utility of a developmental psychopathology perspective for informing research efforts is examined. The implications of a developmental psychopathology perspective for guiding research, clinical, and social policy initiatives of relevance to trauma and memory are discussed.     

Hypnotic amnesia and the paradox of intentional forgetting.

Hypnotic amnesia is often interpreted as a deliberate effort to avoid thinking of ideas or thoughts targeted for amnesia. However, as D. M. Wegner (1989) showed, nonhypnotized individuals who deliberately attempt to suppress certain thoughts or images paradoxically suffer intrusions of the proscribed material. The authors replicated Wegner's findings in 2 separate investigations. However, they also found that hypnotic amnesia did not have such paradoxical effects. Indeed, the great majority of high-hypnotizable individuals administered suggestions for amnesia showed no such intrusions whatsoever, indicating that thought suppression and hypnotic amnesia represent quite different processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social networks and developmental psychopathology: A comparison of adolescent children of a depressed, arthritic, or normal parent.

Investigated how social networks were linked to symptomatology and self-esteem among 3 groups of high-risk and normal adolescents (aged 12–28 yrs). 16 Ss with a depressed parent, 16 Ss with a parent with rheumatoid arthritis, and 16 Ss with parents free from psychological or physical disorder were administered the Hopkins Symptom Checklist and measures of self-esteem and social networks. Additional social network, friendship, and parent–friend boundary density variables were assessed during a semistructured interview. Although there were few between-group differences in mean levels of network variables, there were striking between-group differences in the pattern of associations between network variables and mental health. For Ss with a depressed or arthritic parent, more social support for problematic situations, stronger friendships, and more parent–peer linkages were related to much poorer adjustment. For Ss with disorder-free parents, these same network variables were related to much healthier adjustment. The discussion considers how developmental, psychodynamic, and social-structural factors may interact to affect well-being. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rate of forgetting in amnesia: I. Recall and recognition of prose.

Three experiments explored the rate at which amnesic participants' free recall, cued recall and recognition of prose declined over short filled delays. In Experiment 1, after performance had been matched to that of controls at 15 sec, amnesics showed accelerated forgetting over delays of up to 10 min in a free-recall condition, whereas recognition performance declined normally over delays of up to 1 hr. This pattern of results was replicated in Experiment 2, which showed that amnesic rate of forgetting on a test of cued recall was influenced by level of cuing. Experiment 3 showed that excessive sensitivity to interference was unlikely to be the cause of the amnesic patients' accelerated forgetting rate, which is instead explained in terms of storage deficit accounts of amnesia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Directed forgetting of trauma cues in adults reporting repressed or recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse.

An item-cuing directed forgetting task was used to investigate whether women reporting repressed (n?=?13) or recovered (n?=?13) memories of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) exhibit an avoidant encoding style (and resultant impaired memory) for trauma cues relative to women reporting no CSA experience (n?=?15). All participants viewed intermixed trauma (e.g., molested), positive (e.g., confident), and categorized neutral (e.g., mailbox) words on a computer screen and were instructed either to remember or to forget each word. The results provided no support for the hypothesis that people reporting either repressed or recovered memories of CSA are especially adept at forgetting words related to trauma. These groups recalled words they were instructed to remember more often than words they were instructed to forget regardless of whether they were trauma related. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rates of forgetting in organic amnesia following temporal lobe, diencephalic, or frontal lobe lesions.

Forgetting rates were examined in patients with diencephalic, temporal lobe, or frontal lesions. No significant differences were found in short-term forgetting of verbal and nonverbal material; in recognition memory for pictures, words, or designs over delays between 1 min and 20 or 30 min; or on a measure of explicit cued recall for words, calculated in terms of the process dissociation procedure. Significantly faster forgetting was found in the diencephalic and the temporal lobe groups in the free recall of pictures of objects, although there was no difference between these 2 groups. It is concluded that the major deficit in amnesic patients' memory processes is in the initial acquisition of information but that there is a subtler deficit in retention over specific delays, detectable only on measures of free recall. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The specific psychopathology of bulimia nervosa: A comparison with restrained and unrestrained (normal) eaters.

The hypothesis that patients with bulimia nervosa and restrained eaters exist on a simple continuum of psychopathology was tested in 60 Ss (20 bulimics, 20 restrained eaters, 20 unrestrained eaters). Regarding measures related to dieting behavior and physical appearance, the restrained eaters differed significantly from unrestrained eaters and were similar to bulimic patients except for level of psychopathology. The restrained eaters could not be distinguished from the unrestrained eaters with regard to measures representing interoceptive perception, self-esteem, and fears about interpersonal relationships. On these traits, bulimic patients could be clearly distinguished from the normal Ss. The results support a 2-component model of the psychopathology of bulimia nervosa. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A comparison of forgetting in an implicit and explicit memory task.

Among possible criteria for distinguishing separate memory systems for implicit and explicit memory is that of substantial differences in either the form or rate of forgetting. Prior literature has claimed both differential forgetting and equivalent forgetting for implicit and explicit tasks. Existing experimental data for word-stem completion and explicit control tasks were reviewed and shown to be inconclusive. Our experiments measure forgetting in comparable implicit and explicit memory tasks of stem completion and stem cued recall. The form and the rate of forgetting are essentially the same for these implicit and explicit tasks. Levels of processing and task conditions differ only in the level of initial learning or availability. Thus, either the implicit and explicit task reflect traces in the same memory system or they reflect traces in different systems that have identical forgetting dynamics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A model for interference and forgetting.

A new model for interference and forgetting is presented. The model is based on the search of associative memory (SAM) theory for retrieval from long-term memory by J. G. Raaijmakers and R. M. Shiffrin, see record 1981-20491-001). It includes a contextual fluctuation process that enables it to handle time-dependent changes in retrieval strengths. That is, the contextual retrieval strength is assumed to be proportional to the overlap between the contextual elements encoded in the memory trace and the elements active at the time of testing. It is shown that the model predicts a large number of phenomena from the classical interference literature. These include the basic results concerning retroactive inhibition, proactive inhibition, spontaneous recovery, independence of List 1 and List 2 recall, Osgood's transfer and retroaction surface, simple forgetting functions, the use of recognition measures, and the relation between response accuracy and response latency. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Directed forgetting of trauma cues in adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse with and without posttraumatic stress disorder

The authors used a directed-forgetting task to investigate whether psychiatrically impaired adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse exhibit an avoidant encoding style and impaired memory for trauma cues. The authors tested women with abuse histories, either with or without posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and women with neither abuse histories nor PTSD. The women saw intermixed trauma words (e.g., molested), positive words (e.g., confident), and categorized neutral words (e.g., mailbox) on a computer screen and were instructed either to remember or to forget each word. Relative to the other groups, the PTSD group did not exhibit recall deficits for trauma-related to-be-remembered words, nor did they recall fewer trauma-related to-be-forgotten words than other words. Instead, they exhibited recall deficits for positive and neutral words they were supposed to remember. These data are inconsistent with the hypothesis that impaired survivors exhibit avoidant encoding and impaired memory for traumatic information.     

Monitoring challenges: A closer look at parental monitoring, maternal psychopathology, and adolescent sexual risk.

The present study sought to examine associations between maternal psychopathology, parental monitoring, and adolescent sexual activity among adolescents in mental health treatment. Seven hundred ninety mother-adolescent dyads recruited from adolescent mental health treatment settings completed audio computer-assisted structured interview assessments examining parent psychiatric symptoms, parental monitoring, and adolescent sexual risk behavior. Path analysis was used to examine the associations between variables of interest. Maternal caregivers who reported more mental health symptoms were more likely to have adolescents who reported recent sex and this relationship was mediated by less parental monitoring. These findings suggest that maternal caregivers with mental health symptoms may need specific interventions that provide assistance and support in monitoring their teens in order to reduce sexual risk taking among adolescents in mental health treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of intentional forgetting in normal and reading-delayed children.

Compared the cued forgetting of reading-delayed boys with that of their normal reading agemates. 72 1st-, 3rd-, and 5th-grade boys were presented with picture slides of common objects derived from 6 conceptual categories. Remember (R) or forget (F) cue slides, the duration of which was under S control, followed each picture. Analyses of these cue durations and subsequent recall indicated that Ss from all grades in both reading groups differentiated between R and F items. This differentiation increased both as a function of developmental level and reading ability and was manifested largely in the older and normal Ss' enhanced R-item recall. However, reading-delayed Ss also experienced a significantly higher level of F-item recall. These findings are contrasted with those of other studies that concluded that reading-delayed children demonstrate the same developmental progression in the acquisition of memory strategies and their selective deployment as do normal children, but at a slower rate. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Beyond pictures and words: Alternative information-processing models for imagery effect in verbal memory.

Presents an information-processing approach to imagery effects in verbal memory tasks. A general model of the process of forming images from verbal input is developed, based on propositional memory representations like those used in computer simulations of sentence comprehension, visual scene analysis, and image processing. The general model is then refined in several classes of alternative models that attempt to account for imagery effects, with emphasis on sentence memory results, by using different mechanisms in the general model. The major division in the alternative models is whether the facilitation produced by imagery is due to the actual storage of image information or is just a by-product of image formation or the use of high-imagery materials. Some of the models are rejected on the basis of published data. Two of the remaining models would require substantial progress in the study of sentence memory and comprehension in a way not directly related to imagery. The models most likely to be successful are those that assume that the use of imagery results in the storage of redundant information that provides alternate retrieval routes. (2 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Human amnesia and animal models of amnesia: Performance of amnesic patients on tests designed for the monkey.

The performance of amnesic patients was assessed on five tasks, which have figured prominently in the development of animal models of human amnesia in the monkey. The amnesic patients were impaired on four of these tasks (delayed nonmatching to sample, object-reward association, 8-pair concurrent discrimination learning, and an object discrimination task), in correspondence with previous findings for monkeys with bilateral medial temporal or diencephalic lesions. Moreover, performance of the amnesic patients correlated with the ability to verbalize the principle underlying the tasks and with the ability to describe and recognize the stimulus materials. These tasks therefore seem to be sensitive to the memory functions that are affected in human amnesia, and they can provide valid measures of memory impairment in studies with monkeys. For the fifth task (24-hour concurrent discrimination learning), the findings for the amnesic patients did not correspond to previous findings for operated monkeys. Whereas monkeys with medial temporal lesions reportedly learn this task at a normal rate, the amnesic patients were markedly impaired. Monkeys may learn this task differently than humans. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Directed forgetting in implicit and explicit memory tests: A comparison of methods.

Directed forgetting has been studied by instructing Ss to forget either (1) an initial list or (2) individually selected words. Differential encoding was hypothesized to be responsible for word-method directed forgetting, and retrieval inhibition for list-method directed forgetting. In Exps 1 and 2, directed forgetting was observed in recognition with the word method but not with the list method. Release from directed forgetting occurred in final recall after recognition but only with the list method. These results are interpreted in terms of a theoretical framework that integrates distinctive-relational processing theory with revised generation-recognition theory. In Exps 1–3, predictions from that framework were generally well supported on implicit and explicit retention tests that provided the same stimulus conditions. Consistent with processing theory, list-method directed forgetting was absent on data-driven or conceptually driven implicit tests, and word-method directed forgetting was absent on data-driven implicit tests. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Long-term sequelae of childhood sexual abuse: Perceived family environment, psychopathology, and dissociation.

105 abused and nonabused women were examined for patterns of adult psychopathology associated with childhood sexual abuse and to test the extent to which these patterns are independent of other pathogenic properties of the family environment. Clinical and nonclinical Ss completed the Family Environment Scale, the MMPI, the Rorschach, and the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale. Greater nonspecific impairment among abused women may be a consequence, at least in part, of pathogenic family structure rather than sexual abuse per se. However, MMPI and Rorschach responses suggest sexual abuse may render victims especially vulnerable to specific disturbances involving soma and self. Abuse was associated with greater use of dissociation, but covariance analysis revealed this effect to be accounted for by family pathology. There was no evidence that sexual trauma is associated with hypnotizability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rate of forgetting in amnesia: II. Recall and recognition of word lists at different levels of organization.

Amnesic rate of decline of free recall, cued recall, and recognition of word lists with different levels of organization was investigated in 2 experiments. In Experiment 1, it was found that amnesic free recall of semantically related word lists declined at an accelerated rate, whereas free recall of lists of unrelated words declined at a normal rate. Cued recall and recognition performance of both kinds of word lists appeared to decline at a normal rate. In Experiment 2, the results of the free-recall and recognition conditions were replicated using an improved experimental design. The observed amnesic forgetting pattern is interpreted as arising from an impairment in consolidation of long-term memory for complex associations between 2 or more items and their study context that is caused by extended hippocampal system lesions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Animal models of psychopathology: The low-norepinephrine and low-serotonin rat.

A variety of evidence implies that alterations in the midbrain neuronal systems that use the monamines norepinephrine and serotonin as transmitters are involved in emotional imbalances and psychopathology in humans. The effects of alterations in these circuits can be studied in animals administered selective monoamine neurotoxins. From 7 yrs of research on the effects of alterations in norepinephrine and serotonin on rat behavior, the author notes that rats with norepinephrine depletions are inactive, have hunger deficits, and model aspects of depression, while rats with serotonin depletions are hyperactive, are frightened in novel environments, and model aspects of anxiety. When kept in isolation cages following lesioning, these animals recover but develop paradoxical, overcompensatory behavioral syndromes. When allowed to recover in social rat-colony environments, these animals become progressively more similar to controls, but their presence in the social colony leads to gradually increasing social disruptions. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A comparison of recent german and american training programs for subprofessional workers in psychology.

The training of subprofessional workers has become an increasingly popular solution for the serious manpower shortage in clinical psychology in North America. The present paper reviews a recently published Vocational Guide for Female Psychological-Technical Assistants which was developed by the Professional Association of German Psychologists. The history and present status of the training program, the responsibilities of the technologists, their practical and theoretical training and their certification are described and compared with similar programs in the United States. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recovery and verification of memories of childhood sexual trauma.

53 women outpatients (aged 15–53 yrs) participated in short-term therapy groups for incest survivors. This treatment modality proved to be a powerful stimulus for recovery of previously repressed traumatic memories. A relationship was observed between the age of onset, duration, and degree of violence of the abuse and the extent to which memory of the abuse had been repressed. 74% of Ss were able to validate their memories by obtaining corroborating evidence from other sources. The therapeutic function of recovering and validating traumatic memories is explored in relation to case material. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)