Attentional Bias for Trauma-Film Reminders: Towards a Laboratory Analogue for Studying the Role of Attention in the Persistence of Intrusive Memories

摘要

Two experiments examined whether exposure to a trauma-film induced an attentional bias (AB) forintrinsically neutral (visual) reminders of the film. In experiment 1, half of the participants (n = 33)completed a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task after presentation of a trauma film, whereasthe other participants (n = 32) engaged in this task without prior film-exposure. During the RSVP,participants were to detect neutral targets (rotated landscapes) in a stream of images that also includedvisual distracters consisting of stills depicting persons and objects that featured in the film as well asvisual control distracters unrelated to the film. In line with predictions, participants who saw the filmprior to the RSVP task showed a relatively strong deterioration of task performance when targets werepreceded by film distracters. Results of a second experiment suggested that this AB could be bestexplained by an acquired motivational salience of the inherently neutral film reminders in the RSVPrather than by a mere familiarity effect. Thus, the current RSVP methodology seems to be a viableanalogue method for studying AB after stressful or traumatic experiences.