Clinical and Health Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Eur J Psychotraumatol. 2010;1. doi: 10.3402/ejpt.v1i0.5623. Epub 2010 Dec 6.
Earlier studies have shown that horizontal eye movement (EM) during retrieval of a negative memory reduces its vividness and emotionality. This may be due to both tasks competing for working memory (WM) resources. This study examined whether playing the computer game "Tetris" also blurs memory.
PARTICIPANTS RECALLED NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE MEMORIES IN THREE CONDITIONS: recall only, recall with concurrent EM, and recall with playing Tetris. Before and after these conditions, vividness, emotionality, and physiological startle responses during recall were measured.
A reaction time task showed that EM and Tetris draw on WM, compared to no dual-task. Compared to recall only, EM and Tetris both decreased reported emotionality and startle responses.
The effects of EM and Tetris did not differ, even though the tasks differed in the degree of taxing WM. This suggests that taxing WM and its effects on emotional memories may not be linearly related. Potential clinical implications are discussed.
早期研究表明，在检索负面记忆时进行水平眼球运动（EM）会降低其生动性和情绪性。这可能是由于两个任务都争夺工作记忆（WM）资源。本研究探讨了玩电脑游戏“俄罗斯方块”是否也会使记忆变得模糊。
参与者在三种条件下回忆负面和正面记忆：仅回忆、回忆时同时进行 EM 以及回忆时玩 Tetris。在这些条件之前和之后，测量了回忆期间的生动性、情绪性和生理惊跳反应。
一项反应时间任务表明，与无双重任务相比，EM 和 Tetris 都利用了 WM。与仅回忆相比，EM 和 Tetris 都降低了报告的情绪和惊跳反应。
EM 和 Tetris 的效果没有差异，尽管任务在 WM 方面的要求程度不同。这表明，WM 的消耗及其对情绪记忆的影响可能不是线性相关的。讨论了潜在的临床意义。
