Functional amnesia as induced by a psychological trauma

Abstract

The present study was designed to elucidate whether factors of encoding (attention), storage (consolidation), retrieval (reconstruction), or combinations of these are responsible for amnesia due to exposure to psychologically traumatic events. Subjects in four experiments were preseated a series of slides consisting of photographs of faces, with each face accompanied by four verbal descriptors. For the control subjects, all faces were neutral. For the experimental subjects, faces in the middle of the series were horribly disfigured. Measurements of palmar and cardiac activity were made continuously during the stimulus presentation. Tests of free recall, cued recall, recognition, and cued recognition were used to measure memory performance of the verbal descriptors attached to the faces. Data from the physiological measurements and postexperimental interviews showed clearly that the emotional state wanted actually had been induced. Amnesia was found for items associated with the traumatic events. This finding was interpreted primarily in terms of encoding factors, but storage factors could not be excluded. Furthermore, anterograde amnesia was found in tests of recall but not of recognition, indicating that factors of encoding and retrieval but not of storage play a crucial role in this type of amnesia. Finally, no significant retrograde amnesia effects were obtained. © 1984 Psychonomic Society, Inc.