Do Cognitive Tasks Reduce Intrusive-Memory Frequency After Exposure to Analogue Trauma? An Experimental Replication

Abstract

Cognitive task interventions that interfere with visuospatial working memory during the memory consolidation window hold promise for reducing intrusive memories in trauma-exposed people. Our study provides an independent replication study to test and verify findings that have primarily originated from a single research group. We hypothesized that participants engaging in a visuospatial task (cognitive task intervention including Tetris or D-Corsi) following a trauma-film paradigm (TFP) would report fewer intrusive memories over the course of a week compared with control participants. Participants ( N = 110) were randomly assigned to an experimental condition after viewing the TFP. Generalized linear mixed models indicated that the cognitive task including Tetris was associated with fewer intrusions for the TFP compared with both the D-Corsi-intervention and control conditions. Our findings are congruent with existing literature indicating that cognitive tasks, such as an intervention including Tetris, may promote effective memory consolidation after exposure to a potentially traumatic event.

Selectively Interfering With Intrusive but Not Voluntary Memories of a Trauma Film: Accounting for the Role of Associative Memory

“…Following previous research (Badawi et al, 2020;Deeprose et al, 2012;Holmes et al, 2009;Holmes, James, et al, 2010;Lau-Zhu et al, 2019), baseline measures were completed at the start of the experiment on key clinical/cognitive dimensions that have been associated with increased risk for intrusive memories, including depression and anxiety (e.g., Brewin et al, 2010;Holmes et al, 2016), trauma history (e.g., Ozer et al, 2003), and mental imagery use (e.g., Kosslyn, 2005;Morina et al, 2013), to check for successful random assignments and rule these out as potential confounds.…”

Developing thinking around mental health science: the example of intrusive, emotional mental imagery after psychological trauma

“…Laboratory studies comparing the cognitive task intervention to control conditions have demonstrated that it results in a reduction in the number of intrusive memories over one week (e.g., Holmes et al, 2009;Holmes et al, 2010). This finding has been replicated by an independent research group (Badawi et al, 2019). We emphasise that this is a multi-component intervention (reminder cue followed by visuospatial computer game play "Tetris" with mental rotation instructions)-it is not "just playing Tetris".…”

Investigating the frequency of intrusive memories after 24 hours using a visuospatial interference intervention: a follow-up and extension

“…Moreover, many reported zero intrusions (49/200) in the baseline phase prior to allocation to condition, requiring removal from the final analysis. This step does not appear to have been necessary to apply in previous studies, and even after the removals of the ‘zero intrusions’, the control group mean is still lower than the control group means in studies by Asselbergs et al ( 2018 ), Badawi, Berle, Rogers, and Steel ( 2020 ) and Kessler et al ( 2020 ). While Asselbergs et al ( 2018 ) and Badawi et al ( 2020 ) are both studies where the intervention was given at an earlier time frame than the current one, the control group should be comparable.…”

“…This step does not appear to have been necessary to apply in previous studies, and even after the removals of the ‘zero intrusions’, the control group mean is still lower than the control group means in studies by Asselbergs et al ( 2018 ), Badawi, Berle, Rogers, and Steel ( 2020 ) and Kessler et al ( 2020 ). While Asselbergs et al ( 2018 ) and Badawi et al ( 2020 ) are both studies where the intervention was given at an earlier time frame than the current one, the control group should be comparable. A possible explanation for this is that the films were shown on a PC which is smaller than the screen used by James et al ( 2015 ) (100 cm × 133 cm), and although the film was the same as James et al used, it was a copy and the visual and audio quality was reduced, perhaps thereby also reducing the film’s impact.…”

“…In future studies, a pilot phase to test whether films generate intrusions in a given new population may be useful (cf. Badawi et al, 2020 ). On the other hand, using the trauma film paradigm, Hagenaars, Van Minnen, Holmes, Brewin, and Hoogduin ( 2008 ) obtained an effect of visuospatial processing with lower mean numbers of intrusions than here, as did Krans, Näring, and Becker ( 2009 ) with comparable mean numbers.…”