Information Processing in PTSD: Evidence for Biased Attentional, Interpretation, and Memory Processes

Abstract

This comprehensive review surveys current literature on information processing biases in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The review is organized by information processing systems including attention, judgment and interpretation, and memory. Studies outlined suggest that information processing biases may be key factors involved in the development and maintenance of PTSD. However, inconsistencies exist in the literature within each domain, often depending on assessment paradigm employed or other methodological features. Studies on attention bias demonstrate both facilitated engagement toward and difficulty disengaging from threatening stimuli. Literature on judgment and interpretation biases indicates that those with PTSD are more likely to interpret ambiguous situations as threatening, in addition to over-estimating subjective risk. Memory studies reveal mixed findings; a number of studies found that those with PTSD exhibit a bias toward remembering trauma-relevant or negative stimuli compared to those without PTSD, while others do not replicate this effect. Existing evidence for information processing biases in each of these domains are integrated and future directions for empirical study outlined.

Processing of affective words in adolescent PTSD—Attentional bias toward social threat

“…Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a disorder that may occur after the experience of a traumatic, life-threatening event (e.g., physical or sexual assault, combat, or natural disasters). Researchers attribute the core features of PTSD (avoidance, negative alterations in cognition and mood, re-experiencing, and alterations in arousal and reactivity; American Psychiatric Association, 2013) to a number of disturbed dysfunctional cognitive systems, such as altered attention, perception, memory, and judgment (Johnson, Bomyea, & Lang, 2016). The presumed importance is also reflected by popular theoretical models of PTSD, which include distinct cognitive processing as a fundamental part of development and maintenance of PTSD (Brewin, Dalgleish, & Joseph, 1996;Ehlers & Clark, 2000;Foa, Steketee, & Rothbaum, 1989).…”

Digitale Medien in der Psychotherapie – Neue Ansätze und Perspektiven in der Behandlung von Traumafolgestörungen

“…geht die Entwicklung einer PTBS nach einem traumatischen Ereignis v. a. auf dysfunktionale kognitive Prozesse zurück. Dies können automatische Voreinstellungen ("cognitive bias") bei Prozessen der Aufmerksamkeit, Interpretation und bei Gedächtnisphänomenen sein [42]. Automatisch ablaufende dysfunktionale Einschätzungen bzw.…”

Association of attention and memory biases for negative stimuli with post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms

“…Attentional biases towards trauma-related information are commonly seen in PTSD (McNally, Kaspi, Riemann, & Zeitlin, 1990;Bryant, Harvey, Gordon, & Barry, 1995), although some studies have shown an absence of such biases (for review, see Hayes, VanElzakker, & Shin, 2012;Bomyea et al, 2017). Studies investigating selective attention such as the dot-probe paradigm have shown biases towards (Bryant & Harvey, 1997;Dalgleish, Moradi, Taghavi, Neshat-Doost, & Yule, 2001;Dalgleish et al, 2003;Fani et al, 2012) and away from (Pine et al, 2005;Fani, Bradley-Davino, Ressler, & McClure-Tone, 2011) trauma-related or other negative ATTENTION AND MEMORY BIASES IN PTSD stimuli in PTSD, while other studies have shown no bias (Badura-Brack et al, 2015;Iacoviello et al, 2014).…”