title: Experimental approaches to cognitive abnormality in posttraumatic stress disorder.
abstract: During the past decade, experimental psychopathologists have increasingly applied the concepts and methods of cognitive psychology to elucidate information-processing abnormalities in people with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These studies have shown that individuals with PTSD: (a) selectively process trauma-relevant material in the emotional Stroop paradigm; (b) exhibit enhanced memory for material related to trauma in explicit and perhaps implicit tests; (c) exhibit difficulty forgetting trauma words during directed forgetting; and (d) exhibit problems retrieving specific autobiographical memories in response to cue words, instead recalling "overgeneral" memories. These studies suggest that experimental methods can complement traditional, self-report methods for studying cognitive disturbances in PTSD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: McNally
mesh_terms: D000647:Amnesia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D019336:Cognitive Science; D003118:Color Perception; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008568:Memory; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy