Solving the Mystery of Intrusive Flashbacks in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (Comment on Brewin 2014)

"This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record."In the light of current controversy about the nature of intrusions in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the review by Brewin (2014) is timely and important. It will undoubtedly stimulate further research and guide researchers' quests for understanding the nature of flashbacks in PTSD. In this commentary, I briefly summarize and discuss key points made by Brewin and elaborate on some of the reasons behind the controversy. For example, the terms involuntary autobiographical memories, intrusive memories, and flashbacks are often used interchangeably. I propose a taxonomy revealing the key differences across these forms of memory. If flashbacks are characteristic of patients with PTSD only, it is essential that more research targeting this population is conducted with a variety of methods. Finally, some new avenues for research to study intrusive memories and flashbacks in PTSD, using a diary method and modified trauma film paradigm, are described.Peer reviewedSubmitted Versio

Reduced mind-wandering in Mild Cognitive Impairment: Testing the spontaneous retrieval deficit hypothesis

© American Psychological Association, 2018. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in the APA journal. Please do not copy or cite without author's permission. The final article is available, upon publication, at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/neu0000457Objective: Research on early cognitive markers of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is primarily focused on declarative episodic memory tests that involve deliberate and effortful/strategic processes at retrieval. The present study tested the spontaneous retrieval deficit hypothesis, which predicts that people with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), who are at increased risk of developing AD, are particularly impaired on tasks that rely on spontaneous retrieval processes. Method: Twenty-three participants with aMCI and 25 healthy controls (HC) completed an easy vigilance task and thought probes (reporting what was going through their mind), which were categorized as spontaneous thoughts about the past (i.e., involuntary memories), current situation, and future (i.e., spontaneous prospection). Results: Participants with aMCI reported significantly fewer spontaneous thoughts or mind-wandering than HC. This effect was driven by significantly fewer involuntary memories, although groups did not differ in the number of current and future thoughts. Conclusions: Findings provide strong support for the spontaneous retrieval deficit hypothesis. Implications for research on mind-wandering and the default network, early cognitive markers of the disease, and our theoretical understanding of the nature of cognitive deficits in AD are discussed.Peer reviewe

Out of one's mind: A study of involuntary semantic memories

Peer reviewe

How frequently do you forget in everyday life? : A diary study of prospective and retrospective memory errors in young and old healthy adults

Memory research has commonly been conducted in the laboratory, where large age effects have been observed. In contrast, research using self-report questionnaires assessing retrospective and prospective memory has shown no age effects. In the case of the Everyday Memory Questionnaire (EMQ), if anything, older people appear better. Although a diary method can give more accurate insight into everyday memory processes, there are very few diary studies of everyday memory errors. This study compares memory performance of younger (N=12, age 24-48, mean age=38.6y) and older healthy adults (N=17, age 66-88, mean age=78.6y), using telephone-based cognitive tests (COGTEL; TICS-M), a battery of self-report questionnaires, and 28-day diaries of everyday memory errors. Results will compare the number of errors committed across different age groups and types of recorded errors (classified as prospective, retrospective and absent-minded or attentional errors). In addition, all participants completed a laboratory-based prospective memory task, as part of the COGTEL. This enables us to examine age effects on prospective memory in and outside the laboratory, and provides further insight into possible mechanisms of the prospective memory and ageing paradox. The paradox refers to a contrasting pattern of age effects on prospective memory where older adults often perform worse in the laboratory but outperform young participants outside the laboratory.Peer reviewedSubmitted Versio

Everyday memory errors in Parkinson’s Disease : A study of prospective and retrospective memory errors using diaries, questionnaires and laboratory methods

The cognitive impairments that accompany Parkinson’s disease (PD) are currently under-researched, perhaps due to the more overt physical impairments associated with the illness. However, some studies have provided evidence of deficits in various memory functions in people with PD. Although these studies have provided valuable insight into the memory ability of people with PD, the vast majority have used laboratory-based experiments that are unable to reveal how these memory impairments manifest in, and affect, the everyday lives of these patients. The consequences of failures in everyday memory can range from minor annoyances to more severe circumstances such as forgetting to take medication or endangerment to self or others. We have conducted telephone-based cognitive tests (COGTEL; TICS-M), a battery of self-report questionnaires, and 28-day diaries of everyday memory errors. Results will compare the number of errors committed in PD patients (N=18 (3 male), 47-75 years old, mean age = 60.8y, mean years in education 14.4y, Hoehn and Yahr scale >= 1) compared with age-matched healthy adults (N=16 (3 male), 41-78 years old, mean age = 60.1y, mean years in education 15.0y). In addition, all participants complete a laboratory-based prospective memory task, as part of the COGTEL. We will gain insight into the frequency and types of everyday memory failures in those with PD and also look at the degree to which self-reported and validated cognitive measures correlate.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

How long should a diary be kept? : A diary study of prospective and retrospective memory errors in young and old healthy adults

Memory research has commonly been conducted in the laboratory, and by the use of self-report questionnaires assessing retrospective and prospective memory. Although a diary method can give more accurate insight into everyday memory processes, there are very few diary studies of everyday memory errors. This study added a 28-day diary-recording period to laboratory tests and self-assessment questionnaires. The 28 day period was expected to cover different aspects of life – busier and quieter periods – but initial results showed that surprisingly few memory errors were recorded over a 28 day period, yet participants claimed to have been recording the majority of memory errors experienced during this period. We suspect that participants fatigue over 28 days or start slowly because they feel they have plenty of time, and therefore record fewer errors. A second 7-day diary condition was added and results will compare the number of memory errors committed pro rata over the two diary-keeping periods.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Absence of age effects on spontaneous past and future thinking in daily life

© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2018.Previous research on voluntary mental time travel (i.e., deliberately thinking about the past or future) has resulted in negative age effects. In contrast, studies on spontaneous past thoughts (i.e., involuntary autobiographical memories) have reported small or no age effects. The aim of the present research was to investigate the effects of age on the nature and frequency of spontaneous future thoughts in everyday life. In two studies, we examined whether older adults reported spontaneous future thoughts as often as younger adults, and whether these thoughts were predominantly goal-oriented and less dependent on incidental cues than thoughts about the past. In Study 1, young and old participants kept a diary of spontaneous thoughts of upcoming prospective memory tasks and involuntary autobiographical memories for 2 weeks. In Study 2, a 1-day experience sampling method was used to investigate spontaneous and deliberate task-unrelated future and past thoughts, by having young and old participants complete a questionnaire in response to 30 random signals. In both studies, no age effects were found in the frequency of spontaneous future thoughts, which were reported as frequently as thoughts about the past (Study 2) and referred predominantly to upcoming tasks and goals rather than future events or hypothetical events (Study 2). Results concerning the triggers of reported thoughts provide initial support for the idea that representations of future thoughts may be more activated than memories of past events. Taken together, these results have important implications for research on cognitive ageing, mind-wandering, prospective memory and involuntary autobiographical memories.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Differential effects of age on involuntary and voluntary autobiographical memory

"This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record." Original article can be found at: http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/pag/24/2/397/ Copyright American Psychological Association. DOI: 10.1037/a0015785Research on aging and autobiographical memory has focused almost exclusively on voluntary autobiographical memory. However, in everyday life, autobiographical memories often come to mind spontaneously without deliberate attempt to retrieve anything. In the present study, diary and word-cue methods were used to compare the involuntary and voluntary memories of 44 young and 38 older adults. The results showed that older adults reported fewer involuntary and voluntary memories than did younger adults. Additionally, the life span distribution of involuntary and voluntary memories did not differ in young adults (a clear recency effect) or in older adults (a recency effect and a reminiscence bump). Despite these similarities between involuntary and voluntary memories, there were also important differences in terms of the effects of age on some memory characteristics. Thus, older adults’ voluntary memories were less specific and were recalled more slowly than those of young adults, but there were no reliable age differences in the specificity of involuntary memories. Moreover, older adults rated their involuntary memories as more positive than did young adults, but this positivity effect was not found for voluntary memories. Theoretical implications of these findings for research on autobiographical memory and cognitive aging are discussedPeer reviewe

The frequency and cueing mechanisms of involuntary autobiographical memories while driving

© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs) have been typically studied with paper diaries, kept for a week or longer. However, such studies are unable to capture the true frequency of IAMs, nor the level of detail that would give new insights into the mechanisms of IAMs. To address this gap, a new audio-recording method was developed and tested on the first author who recorded 674 IAMs while driving a car on a 30-40-minute-long habitual route on 20 occasions. Results revealed very high frequency of IAMs (almost 34 per journey) that were reported more often in response to dynamic (one-off) than static cues. Moreover, a substantial number of memory chains and long-term priming of IAMs by previously encountered incidental stimuli were also recorded. Based on these results, a new theoretical model is proposed in which the occurrence of IAMs is determined by an interplay of factors at the time of the IAM, such as the type of ongoing activity and internal or external triggers, as well as different types of long-term priming. The results also have practical implications for studying mind-wandering and safety issues in driving and aircraft-flying, where periods of concentration are followed by monotony and less demanding tasks.Peer reviewe

Role of triggers and dysphoria in mind-wandering about past, present and future : A laboratory study

This document is the accepted manuscript version of the following article: Benjamin Plimpton, Priya Patel, and Lia Kvavilashvili, ‘role of triggers and dysphoria in mind-wandering about past, present and future: A laboratory study’, Consciousness and Cognition, Vol 33, May 2015, pp. 261-276, first published online 9 February 2015. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. The version of record is available online at doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2015.01.014 © 2015. Elsevier. All rights reserved.To bridge the related but separate areas of research on mind-wandering and Involuntary Autobiographical Memory (IAM), the frequency and temporal focus of task unrelated thoughts about past, present, and future was compared in 19 dysphoric and 21 non-dysphoric participants, using a modified laboratory method for studying IAMs. Participants were stopped 11 times during a 15-min vigilance task and recorded their thoughts at that moment. In both groups, most thoughts were spontaneous, task-unrelated, and triggered by irrelevant cue-words on the screen with negative words being more likely to trigger past memories and positive cues – thoughts about future. Both groups reported more past memories than current or future thoughts, but differences emerged in the type of future thought experienced: non-dysphoric participants reported more planning thoughts, and dysphoric participants more abstract hypothetical thoughts. The results suggest that some findings from IAM research regarding cues and the impact of dysphoria may be generalizable to mind-wandering.Peer reviewe