The Effects of Repeated Retrieval on Autobiographical Memories

描述(申请人提供)：自传体记忆(AM)在人们构建自我概念、他们的人格体验以及他们与周围世界互动的方式中发挥着核心作用。AM是许多重要行为的基础，例如学习(如Pillemer，2003)、交流(Bluck&Alea，2002)、追求目标(如Singer&Salovey，1993)以及想象未来可能发生的事件(如Szpuar，2010)。当AM因为健忘症(Burgess&Shallice，1996)或阿尔茨海默病(Bayles，Kaszniak，&Tomoeda，1991)而丢失时，后果是深远的。同样，当AM极度消极时，生活质量可能会严重下降--许多形式的精神病理学涉及应激和侵入性记忆，如创伤后应激障碍(PTSD；例如，Rubin，Berntsen和Bohni，2008)。自从对AM进行系统的实证研究(Freud，1915；Galton，1883)以来，该领域已经产生了许多关于AM在整个生命周期中发展的性质和功能的知识(有关综述，请参阅Conway等人，2010)。一个已经被彻底调查的基本问题是，内容(例如，事件的具体细节、叙事结构等)是如何和现象学特征(例如，情感强度、生动等)会随着时间的推移而变化。为了解释AM为什么会随着时间的推移而变化，研究人员经常引用对先前经历的事件的重复提取(即“排练”)作为因果机制。然而，这种说法的证据大多是相关的，因为AM研究通常通过主观报告来回溯地衡量检索，而不是在 前瞻性实验。这项拟议的研究的主要目标是检验关于重复提取如何影响AM的理论主张，并检验这些影响在患有和没有创伤后应激障碍的个体中是否有所不同。更具体地说，拟议的研究将通过进行前瞻性实验来调查提取如何影响AM的内容和现象学特征，在这些实验中，AM的检索被操纵为自变量。关键的是，将被检验的理论主张对心理健康有直接影响。例如, 创伤后应激障碍的一个症状是反复提取强烈负面的、引起压力的AM--了解提取如何影响AM可能使涉及记忆提取的治疗方法得到改进，以降低创伤记忆的情绪强度。拟议的研究将推进NIMH战略计划中提出的目标#1和#3。这项研究将进一步加深我们对导致创伤后应激障碍(战略目标1)的行为和经验因素的理解。此外，这项研究将提高用于治疗创伤后应激障碍的现有疗法的疗效，同时也为其他与记忆相关的精神健康障碍的治疗提供信息(战略目标3)。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Autobiographical memory (AM) plays a central role in people's construction of a self-concept, their experience of personhood, and the way in which they interact with world around them. AM is fundamental to a host of important behaviors, such as learning (e.g., Pillemer, 2003), communication (Bluck & Alea, 2002), goal pursuit (e.g., Singer & Salovey, 1993), and imaging possible future events (e.g., Szpunar, 2010). When AM is lost because of amnesia (Burgess & Shallice, 1996) or Alzheimer's disease (Bayles, Kaszniak, & Tomoeda, 1991) the consequences are profound. Similarly, quality of life can be severely reduced when AMs are intensely negative - many forms of psychopathology involve stress-provoking and intrusive memories, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD; e.g., Rubin, Berntsen, & Bohni, 2008). Since the origins of systematic empirical research on AM (Freud, 1915; Galton, 1883), the field has generated much knowledge about nature and function of AM as it develops across the lifespan (for review see Conway et al., 2010). A basic question that has been thoroughly investigated is how the content (e.g., specific details of events, narrative structure, etc.) and phenomenological characteristics (e.g., emotional intensity, vividness, etc.) of AMs change over time. In order to explain why AMs change over time, researchers often invoke repeated retrieval of previously experienced events (i.e. "rehearsal") as a causal mechanism. However, the evidence for this claim is mostly correlational because AM studies usually measure retrieval retrospectively through subjective reports rather than manipulating it in prospective experiments. The broad goal of the proposed research is to test theoretical claims about how repeated retrieval affects AM and examine whether these effects differ in individuals with and without PTSD. More specifically, the proposed research will investigate how retrieval affects the content and phenomenological characteristics of AMs by performing prospective experiments in which the retrieval of AMs is manipulated as an independent variable. Critically, the theoretical claims that will be tested have direct implications for mental health. For example, one symptom of PTSD is the repeated retrieval of intensely negative, stress-provoking AMs - knowledge of how retrieval affects AM may enable the improvement of therapies involving the retrieval of memories to reduce the emotional intensity of trauma memories. The proposed research will advance Objectives #1 and #3 put forth in the NIMH Strategic Plan. The study will further our understanding of the behavioral and experiential factors that contribute to PTSD (Strategic Objective #1). In addition, the study will improve the efficacy of existing therapies tht are used for the treatment of PTSD, while also informing the treatment of other memory-related mental health disorders (Strategic Objective #3).