Lecture 9 - Intrusive Thinking Flashcards
How do intrusions differ in PTSD & depression vs. other disorders (e.g., anxiety disorders, OCD)
In the former, more closely linked to past events. For the latter, more closely linked to fears of the future and/or hypothetical catastrophic outcomes
What is a quality of intrusive memories in PTSD and what is something they evoke?
Respectively:
- Sensory experiences
- Drives other symptoms (distress > avoidance & hypervigilance)
When do people show a higher probability of experiencing OCD symptoms (in the context of intrusive thoughts)?
When the belief is held that the intrusive thoughts make the probability of those events higher (thought-action fusion)
Why are intrusions a transdiagnostic symptom?
Because they are observed across mental disorders (+ in normal populations)
Experience/thought sampling as a research paradigm for instrusive thoughts?
Sampling focused on gathering self-reported information (in this case about intrusive thoughts during, e.g., boring lab tasks or intrusive provocation tasks)
Pros and Cons of experience/thoughts sampling (for intrusions)? (2 & 5 respectively)
Pros:
- Both “naturally” occurring intrusions and intrusions cued by peculiar (idiosyncratic) prompts
- Translation: lab and real-life
Cons:
- Requires meta-awareness, which could be compromised in clinical populations
- In healthy populations, the concept of intrusions is quite abstract
- No control over event, peri-event factors (response during trauma)
- No control over timing of intrusion
- Involuntariness difficult to verify
What is the multi-story memory model by Atkinson & Shiffrin?
Input > sensory memory > attention > short-term memory (maintainance rehearsal) > encoding > long-term (feeds back through retrieval):
What is the trauma film paradigm (+diary) for intrusive thoughts?
(from what I can gather from the slide alone):
- Encoding of film clips
- Followed by keeping a diary of intrusions
- Then voluntary memory gets tested
Cognitive model of PTSD?
Intrusions arise because of:
- Poorly processes trauma memory (fragmented and disorganized)
- Strong perceptual priming (sensory based fragments- unconstrained by context- are activated by stimuli that resemble elements of the hotspot or were around at the time)
Pros and cons of trauma film paradigm (intrusions)? (3 & 5 respectively)
Pros:
- Control over event and “peri-trauma” factors (factors during traumatic event, e.g., dissociation)
- “golden standard” for truthful memories, which alllows comparison to measures of voluntary recall
- Relatively high ecological validity (compared to, e.g., picture/conditioning)
Cons:
- Requires meta-awareness
- Film only a proxy for trauma, and not autobiographical
- No control over timing of intrusions (diary use)
- Involuntariness difficult to verify
- Ethical? (mostly, with informed consent, proper screening and after care)
Which three facets of the multi-store memory model do single vs. dual traces include?
Sensory input, attention and encoding
Single vs. dual trace? Intrusions theory
- Single trace = Enhanced emotional activation during trauma makes the memory more accessible
- Dual trace = Overwhelming stress > over-consolidation of perceptual elements, which impairs integration w/contextual features in autobiographical memory
On what theory for intrusions is the trauma film paradigm based?
Single vs. dual trace
On what theory for intrusions is the Think/No-think paradigm based?
Cognitive control (deficits)
What do cognitive theories for intrusions generally assume?
That poor cognitive control leads to involuntary retrievals of past and imagined events
- Insufficient inhibition of hippocampus and amygdala
- Can be worsened by things like lack of sleep (vicious cycle)
Which facet(s) do cognitive theories for intrusions encompass in the multi-store memory model?
Retrieval
Pros and cons of the Think/No-think paradigm? (4 & 3 respectively)
Pros:
- Control over event and peri-trauma factors
- “golden standard” for truthful memory (aka comparison possible)
- Control over timing of intrusions
- Clear inference of involuntariness (if suppression fails)
Cons:
- Requires meta-awareness
- Demand bias? (participants are instructed to suppress)
- Low ecological validity
Possible explanations for intrusions?
- Epiphenomenon (why tf do they want to use words like this, anyways: by-product)
- To process salient experiences (memory processing- possible window for updating memory)
- To guide future behaviour (warning signal)
Dual-task interference for intrusions?
Things like EMDR (competing task) or things like proranolol
Is the intrusive memory of trauma a conditioned response?
The basics = who tf knows
- some evidence, but identification of CS and US in real life nigh impossible
