Counting During Recall: Taxing of Working Memory and Reduced Vividness and Emotionality of Negative Memories

摘要

While initially subject to debate, meta-analyses have shown that eye movement desensitization andreprocessing (EMDR) is effective in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Earlierstudies showed that eye movements during retrieval of emotional memories reduce their vividnessand emotionality, which may be due to both tasks competing for limited working memory (WM)resources. This study examined whether another secondary task that taxes WM has beneficial effects,and whether the stronger the taxing, the stronger the reductions in vividness/adversity. A reactiontime (RT) paradigm showed that counting backwards requires WM resources, and that more complexcounting is more demanding than simple counting. Relative to a retrieval-only condition, countingduring retrieval of emotional memories reduced vividness and emotionality during later recall ofthese memories. However, the counting conditions did not differ in the magnitude of this reduction,and did not show the predicted dose-response relationship. Implications for a working-memoryexplanation of EMDR and for clinical practice are discussed.