Induced Amnesia for Distressing Information in a Nonclinical Sample

Abstract

Dissociative reactions during and subsequent to traumatic events are theorised to result in memory deficits for trauma-related information. This study investigated the interaction between induced amnesia and dissociative reactions. Participants (N = 29) were presented with a word list, a series of disfigured or neutral faces and a second word list, followed by free recall and recognition tasks. Participants presented with disfigured faces recalled fewer words from the postimage list in the free recall task than those presented with neutral faces; however, there were no between-group differences for recognition. No relationship was observed between dissociative tendencies and memory performance. Trait dissociation was unrelated to induced amnesia effects. Findings are interpreted in terms of impaired consolidation of information following encoding of distressing information. Implications of the results for the clinical management of traumatized individuals are considered.