The effects of eye movements and alternative dual tasks on the vividness and emotionality of negative autobiographical memories: A meta-analysis of laboratory studies

Abstract

Performing eye movements during memory retrieval is considered to be important for the therapeutic effect of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). We conducted a meta-analysis of laboratory studies that compared the effects of eye movements and/or alternative dual tasks (e.g., counting) on the vividness and emotionality of negative autobiographical memories with recall only (control) conditions. The databases PsycINFO and Web of Science were queried. Fifteen studies that involved 942 participants were included. Eye movements and alternative dual tasks produced similar vividness and emotionality decreases, with the impact on vividness being strong than that on emotionality. However, eye movements yielded a stronger overall vividness reduction than alternative dual tasks, although the associated effect size was small (Cohen’s d = .29). Because eye movements and alternative dual tasks produced comparable effects, one might conclude that both tasks are therapeutic equivalents. However, it should be acknowledged that only a limited number of laboratory studies were included in our meta-analysis, and the degree to which both procedures tax working memory was not independently established. Although our conclusion cannot be generalized to clinical practice, it does raise questions about the mode of action of EMDR.

Memory and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy: a potentially risky combination in the courtroom

“…In the final task, they received a stimulus discrimination test with slightly different faces immediately or one day later. Of relevance for the current review is the finding that, as in Houben et al's (2020a) experiment, not immediately, but after a delay (i.e., one day later), eye movements increased false positive rates. The fact that these memory errors occurred after a delay is especially interesting as EMDR is oftentimes not immediately given after an experience, and often takes place after a certain delay.…”

Taking a walk through time: aversive memory re-experiencing may be linked to spatio-temporal distance

“…Interestingly, this did not translate into group differences in IES-r scores in the following week, which leaves it to speculation whether the Lifeline intervention would have been superior to a memory-engaging control condition. Note that prior studies reporting successful manipulations of emotionality and vividness often relied on control conditions in which the aversive memories were activated (for review, see Houben et al, 2020 ).…”

“…Next, like other experimental manipulations of autobiographical memories (e.g. using guided eye-movements; Houben, Otgaar, Roelofs, Merckelbach, & Muris, 2020 ), we expected short-term reductions in memory vividness and emotionality. In the week following the intervention, we expected the Lifeline condition to reduce distress and re-experiencing, whereby symptom changes would be linearly associated with prior (changes in) automatic associations with the past and of the sense of distancing (Meyer et al, 2019 ; Schuettler & Boals, 2011 ).…”

Neural Correlates of Reactivation and Vividness Reveal Separable Contributions to Objective and Subjective Measures of Episodic Memory

“…A word in the English language often used to describe the sharpness and vitality of a conscious experience is “vivid” or “vividness”. Psychologists often ask participants in experiments to rate their conscious memories (or mental images) as having more less of this quality (e.g., Cooper, Kesinger, & Ritchey, 2019; Houben, Otgaar, Roelofs, Merckelbach, & Muris, 2020; Janssen, Rubin, & St. Jacques, 2011; Kark & Kesinger, 2019; Tibon, Fuhrmann, Levy, Simons, & Henson, 2019). In practice, “vividness” provides an index of a memory’s subjective global quality and the extent to which a recalled memory has something of the force and sharpness of a direct perceptual experience.…”