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

Abstract

Background There is a need for effective, low-cost, readily available measures for reducing trauma symptoms so that people exposed to potentially traumatic events can receive help more quickly. A previous study reported that performing an intervention including a visuospatial task shortly after a reminder of a series of unpleasant film clips seen 24 hours earlier reduced the number of intrusive memories over the following week. Objective This study reports a follow-up and extension of the earlier promising finding. The prediction was that participants performing the visuospatial task immediately after the reminder would report fewer intrusions compared to three other groups who 1) performed no task, and novel conditions who 2) performed the task before the reminder, and 3) performed the task 90 minutes after the reminder. Method A trauma-analogue method was used, where students ( N = 200) watched a series of short films with unpleasant material. Over the following week, they were asked to write down any intrusive memories they experienced in a diary. On the second day they returned to the lab and saw static reminders of the films. They were then randomly allocated to condition, recorded intrusive memories over the following days and returned to the lab for final testing on Day 8. Results A total of 49 participants did not report any intrusions and were excluded from the analyses. Two more participants were excluded as outliers, leaving a final sample of n = 149. Despite using largely the same materials as the original study there were no significant differences in the number of intrusive memories between the four groups post intervention. Conclusions Possible explanations include the effect not being as robust as expected, a low number of intrusions across groups, baseline differences in attention, and minor but potentially important differences in procedure between this and the original study.

Cognitive flexibility moderates the efficacy of a visuospatial intervention following exposure to analog trauma

“…Finally, findings of James et al (2015) have been independently replicated by Badawi et al (2020) who received training and feedback on the procedure from the authors of the original study. However, another study with several procedural variations and less training showed null effects (Brennen et al, 2021). This underscores the importance of establishing boundary conditions around an intrusion reduction effect, whether by examining variations in methods' details, or by examining individual differences that may impact the intervention engagement, as in the current study.…”

Game-matching background music has an add-on effect for reducing emotionality of traumatic memories during reconsolidation intervention

“…As for visuospatial games, although it has been repeatedly reported that playing Tetris game can reduce the number of intrusions in experimental conditions ( 19 , 31 , 49 , 53 , 76 , 77 ), real-world traumas ( 20 , 21 , 75 , 78 ), and PTSD patients ( 22 ), and in either the consolidation (1920, 31, 73) or the reconsolidation time window ( 22 , 49 , 53 , 77 ), there were some studies finding null results with Tetris game ( 30 ) or visuospatial tasks either quite similar to ( 28 ) or different from ( 28 , 29 ) Tetris. One of the important reasons they attributed to for the null results was the possibility of less interesting and attention-grabbing of games, which is the basis of flow state.…”

“…The theoretical basis for the effectiveness of visuospatial tasks is that most intrusive memories are visual imageries ( 23 , 24 ), thus can be selectively disrupted by taxing working memory via competition for limited cognitive resources ( 25 – 27 ) when that memory is labile. However, this theory was challenged by some researches with negative results ( 28 , 29 ), and also the effects of Tetris game play could not be replicated by some researchers ( 30 , 31 ). These results indicate that there may be some boundary conditions that are subtle and complex.…”

No Convincing Evidence that Playing the Computer Game Tetris Reduces Daily Intrusions of a Trauma Film: A Multilab Replication

“…Data from 11 experiments (Badawi et al, 2020;Hagenaars et al, 2017;Holmes et al, 2010;James et al, 2015;H. Kessler et al, 2020;Lau-Zhu et al, 2019Page & Coxon, 2017) suggest playing Tetris effectively reduces intrusions (in a daily diary) whereas four do not (Asselbergs et al, 2018;Brennen et al, 2021;Brühl et al, 2019;Hemi et al, 2023). Thus, at first sight, most findings seem to corroborate the effectiveness of playing Tetris on the occurrence of intrusions.…”