Investigation of the indulgence cycles hypothesis of suppression on experimentally induced visual intrusions in dysphoria

Within the thought control literature, Wegner [(1989). White bears and other unwanted thoughts: Suppression, obsession, and the psychology of mental control. New York, NY, USA: Penguin Press.] referred to the combined initial suppression and expression phases of thought control as an indulgence cycle which results in the rebound effect typically observed in suppression studies. According to Ironic Process Theory [Wegner, (1994). Ironic processes of mental control. Psychological Review, 101, 34-52.], this rebound leads to further attempts to suppress that are difficult due to the target thought's hyperaccessibility, resulting in a secondary rebound effect owing to a positive feedback system of indulgence cycles. The current study investigated (i) the effects of repeated suppression and opportunities for expression by using a method to index the frequency, duration, and associated levels of distress of an experimentally induced visual intrusion, and (ii) whether any observed effects were differentially linked to depressive symptomatology in an analogue sample of low and high dysphoric participants. Results supported a secondary rebound effect in those participants most successful at suppressing target intrusions. The findings offer an important extension to the emerging literature on the management of intrusive memories in depression.     

Trauma-related and neutral false memories in war-induced Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Recent models of cognition in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) predict that trauma-related, but not neutral, processing should be differentially affected in these patients, compared to trauma-exposed controls. This study compared a group of 50 patients with PTSD related to the war in Bosnia and a group of 50 controls without PTSD but exposed to trauma from the war, using the DRM method to induce false memories for war-related and neutral critical lures. While the groups were equally susceptible to neutral critical lures, the PTSD group mistakenly recalled more war-related lures. Both false and correct recall were related more to depression than to self-rated trauma. Implications for accounts of false memories in terms of source-monitoring are discussed.     

Healing Together

As part of the World Council of Churches’ pilgrimage of justice and peace, the Just Community of Wo/Men organized the “Walking Her-Story” activity as a gender response. These have remained pilgrim team visits that focus on listening to the stories of wo/men young and old and particularly addressing gender injustice specifically as expressed in sexual and gender-based violence. This article focuses on the process triggered by such stories in Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, and South Sudan that became the midwife that gave birth to Healing Together – an ecumenical resource for faith- and community-based counselling of those psychosocially wounded by injustice and violence. Rooted in the understanding of mission as healing and wholeness, the stories listened to became a cry for healing and wholeness. The process and product benefited from the richness of my being an ethicist of care nurtured by my ubuntu (communitarian) ethical background, trained in Healing of Memories’ facilitation and as a student of Franklian logotherapy. I worked with survivors of injustice and violence, post-traumatic stress disorder healing facilitators, and church leaders through the council of churches in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and South Sudan.     

Motor adaptation and manual transfer: Insight into the persistent nature of sensorimotor representations

It is well known that sensorimotor memories are built and updated through experience with objects. These representations are useful to anticipatory and feedforward control processes that preset grip and load forces during lifting. When individuals lift objects with qualities that are not congruent with their memory-derived expectations, feedback processes adjust motor plans to achieve successful lifts and contribute to the updating of the stored representations. The two experiments presented examine motor adaptation to an illusory size–weight lifting task, and the transfer of this motor adaptation to the unexposed hand. In Experiment 1, performers acquired motor adaptation with their right hand and transfer was measured on their left hand. In Experiment 2, adaptation was acquired with the left hand and transfer was measured on the right hand. In order to investigate the persistence of sensorimotor memories, these experiments measure adaptation, retention, and transfer after 15 min and 24 h delay periods. Both experiments confirm that experience with objects leads to adaptation of force scaling processes, that these adaptations transcend effector and are persistent. The results are discussed in terms favouring interpretations that describe motor adaptations to illusion as being centrally available.     

Current concerns in involuntary and voluntary autobiographical memories

Involuntary autobiographical memories are conscious memories of personal events that come to mind with no preceding attempts at retrieval. It is often assumed that such memories are closely related to current concerns – i.e., uncompleted personal goals. Here we examined involuntary versus voluntary (deliberately retrieved) autobiographical memories in relation to earlier registered current concerns measured by the Personal Concern Inventory (PCI; Cox & Klinger, 2000). We found no differences between involuntary and voluntary memories with regard to frequency or characteristics of current concern-related contents. However, memories related to current concerns were rated as more central to the person’s identity, life story and expectations for the future than non-concern-related memories, irrespective of mode of recall. Depression and PTSD symptoms correlated positively with the proportion of current concern-related involuntary and voluntary memories. The findings support the view that involuntary and voluntary remembering is subject to similar motivational constraints.     

Gender stereotype–consistent memories: How system justification motivation distorts the recollection of information related to the self

Research based on system justification theory has shown that women’s self-perceptions may be altered by the motivation to justify the system and its inequalities. Self-perceptions being built on past experiences, the present study aimed to explore how system justification motivation induced through a system dependency manipulation may alter both women’s recall of autobiographical memories and their behavior. Women who were led to feel highly dependent on the social system perceived themselves as more competent and recalled memories of higher competence in the verbal domain compared with the negatively stereotyped scientific domain. Women’s behavioral choices (between doing a verbal or a math exercise) also revealed a higher preference for the gender stereotype–consistent verbal exercise in the high–system dependency condition, as compared with the low–system dependency condition. These results suggest that gender stereotypes may not only satisfy self- or group-serving motivation but also the need to perceive the system in a positive light.     

Networks of self-defining memories as a contributing factor to emotional openness

Emotional openness is characterised by a capacity to tolerate threatening self-relevant material and an interest towards new emotional situations. We investigated how specific networks of memories could be an important contributing factor to emotional openness. At Phase 1, participants completed measures of personality traits and emotional intelligence, described a self-defining memory, provided other memories associated with it, and rated the valence of each of their memories. A score assessing the complexity of this memory network, comprising the number of memories reported and their valence diversity, was created. Two weeks later, in laboratory, participants watched an anxiety-inducing film and took part in an interview assessing their emotional openness to the film. They completed a cognitive task before and after the film to measure ego depletion. Controlling for traits and emotional intelligence, memory network complexity was positively associated with emotional openness and negatively with ego depletion. The mental organisation of self-defining memories thus appears to be a critical factor contributing to emotional openness.     

The role of kinematic mental simulation in creating false memories

Our investigation focuses on memory for scenes depicted in photos. According to the mental model theory, the observation of a static scene depicted in a photo which portrays an actor near to perform an action can trigger a kinematic mental simulation of that action unfolding in time. The deriving prediction is that such a kinematic mental model supports the creation of a false memory of the actor performing an advanced phase of the action. We test this prediction in three experiments in which participants are presented with static scenes of actions, and after three days they perform a recognition task in which they assess recognition of old and novel static scenes depicting actions. The results confirm that false memories occur for actions that represent the unfolding over time of the static action initially observed. Our theoretical framework can accommodate also several previous findings in the literature on false memories.