Investigating traumatic memory integration in people with and without post-traumatic stress disorder using the event-cueing paradigm

Abstract

Poor integration and landmark views make opposing claims regarding the relationship between post-traumatic stress symptoms and trauma memory integration. This study tested these approaches using an event cluster paradigm. In total, 126 participants (N-ptsd = 61; Nnon-ptsd = 65) remembered memories from the same story as trauma, positive and neutral memories and reported whether each memory was directly retrieved or generated. Moreover, the retrieval time (RT) was recorded. Finally, the participants completed the Centrality of Event Scale (CES) and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Scale-Self Report (PSS-SR). The results demonstrated that participants with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) recalled their clusters of memories more slowly and less directly than those without PTSD. However, the CES predicted PTSD severity more strongly than RT and retrieval strategy. These results suggest that traumatic memories are more disorganised but perceived as more central in PTSD.