Effect of clay modelling on vividness and emotionality of autobiographical memories

Abstract

A visuospatial grounding task, making shapes from modelling clay (plasticine), has been shown to reduce encoding of traumatic images (Stuart, Holmes & Brewin, 2006). We tested the impact of this task on retrieval of emotional memories. Non-clinical participants recalled autobiographical memories of negative and positive events under control (no concurrent task) or experimental (clay modelling) conditions. As predicted by a working memory model of recollection, the clay modelling task reduced the self-rated vividness and emotional intensity of the memories. We suggest that clay modelling may be a useful treatment aid for dampening emotional distress during recall of traumatic events.