Autobiographical memory specificity, intrusive memory, and general memory skills in Dutch–Indonesian survivors of the World War II Era

Abstract

A lack of specific autobiographical memory may result from exposure to psychological trauma, intrusive memories of adverse events, and/or a general memory deficit. This study explored the role of these variables in 25 patients with various psychiatric diagnoses and 15 healthy controls. All participants had been exposed to war atrocities during their childhood in Indonesia. Patients produced significantly less specific memories than did controls. In addition, rather than performance on general neuropsychological memory tests, the frequent occurrence of intrusive memories and the avoidance of reminders of trauma predicted less autobiographical memory specificity. These results replicate and extend earlier findings on intrusive and nonspecific autobiographical memory in depressed samples to a group of people who experienced war atrocities in childhood.

Trauma exposure in childhood impairs the ability to recall specific autobiographical memories in late adolescence

“…Subsequent studies have extended these findings, demonstrating an association between exposure to trauma and overgeneral autobiographical memory retrieval (Dalgleish et al, 2003;de Decker, Hermans, Raes, & Eelen, 2003;Hermans et al, 2004;Wessel, Merckelbach, & Dekkers, 2002). Furthermore, an association has been observed between overgeneral autobiographical memory and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; e.g., McNally, Lasko, Macklin, & Pitman, 1995), acute stress disorder (Harvey, Bryant & Dang, 1998), and major depressive disorder (MDD; e.g., Kuyken & Brewin, 1995;Moore, Watts, & Williams, 1988).…”

Autobiographical memory specificity and affect regulation: coping with a negative life event

“…Furthermore, several studies have shown that reduced memory specificity is significantly associated with avoidance of intrusive thoughts [e.g. Kuyken and Brewin, 1995;Stokes et al, 2004;Wessel et al, 2002]. Raes et al [2006b] showed that this association even remains when controlling for level of depression and working memory capacity.…”

Autobiographical Memory and Interpersonal Problem Solving in Iranian Patients With Borderline Personality Disorder

“…Cognitive models of PTSD suggest that our overgeneral memory for traumatic events may limit ability of the patient to integrate the traumatic memories with other autobiographical memory and one's self-concept (Dalgleish, 2004). And intrusions of memories in a long period of time absorb the resources that could be used for effortful memory research (Wessel, Merckelbach, & Dekkers, 2002). Williams (1996) proposed that overgeneral memory helps patients block emotional events with negative effects (Geraerts, Dritschel, Kreplin, Miyagawa, & Waddington 2012).…”