Berntsen Dorthe, Rubin David C
Department of Psychology, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark.
Mem Cognit. 2008 Mar;36(2):449-60. doi: 10.3758/mc.36.2.449.
Recurrent involuntary memories are autobiographical memories that come to mind with no preceding retrieval attempt and that are subjectively experienced as being repetitive. Clinically, they are classified as a symptom of posttraumatic stress disorder. The present work is the first to systematically examine recurrent involuntary memories outside clinical settings. Study 1 examines recurrent involuntary memories among survivors of the tsunami catastrophe in Southeast Asia in 2004. Study 2 examines recurrent involuntary memories in a large general population. Study 3 examines whether the contents of recurrent involuntary memories recorded in a diary study are duplicates of, or differ from, one another. We show that recurrent involuntary memories are not limited to clinical populations or to emotionally negative experiences; that they typically do not come to mind in a fixed and unchangeable form; and that they show the same pattern regarding accessibility as do autobiographical memories in general. We argue that recurrent involuntary memories after traumas and in everyday life can be explained in terms of general and well-established mechanisms of autobiographical memory.
反复出现的非自主性记忆是指那些在没有先前检索尝试的情况下进入脑海,并且主观上被体验为具有重复性的自传体记忆。临床上,它们被归类为创伤后应激障碍的一种症状。目前的这项工作是首次在临床环境之外系统地研究反复出现的非自主性记忆。研究1考察了2004年东南亚海啸灾难幸存者中的反复出现的非自主性记忆。研究2考察了一大群普通人群中的反复出现的非自主性记忆。研究3考察了在一项日记研究中记录的反复出现的非自主性记忆的内容彼此之间是重复还是不同。我们表明,反复出现的非自主性记忆并不局限于临床人群或情感上的负面经历;它们通常不会以固定不变的形式出现在脑海中;并且它们在可及性方面与一般的自传体记忆表现出相同的模式。我们认为,创伤后和日常生活中的反复出现的非自主性记忆可以用自传体记忆的一般且已确立的机制来解释。