title: The importance of context: evidence that contextual representations increase intrusive memories.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Intrusive memories appear to enter consciousness via involuntary rather than deliberate recollection. Some clinical accounts of PTSD seek to explain this phenomenon by making a clear distinction between the encoding of sensory-based and contextual representations. Contextual representations have been claimed to actively reduce intrusions by anchoring encoded perceptual data for an event in memory. The current analogue trauma study examined this hypothesis by manipulating contextual information independently from encoded sensory-perceptual information.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants' viewed images selected from the International Affective Picture System that depicted scenes of violence and bodily injury. Images were viewed either under neutral conditions or paired with contextual information.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Two experiments revealed a significant increase in memory intrusions for images paired with contextual information in comparison to the same images viewed under neutral conditions. In contrast to the observed increase in intrusion frequency there was no effect of contextual representations on voluntary memory for the images. The vividness and emotionality of memory intrusions were also unaffected.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The analogue trauma paradigm may fail to replicate the effect of extreme stress on encoding postulated to occur during PTSD.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings question the assertion that intrusive memories develop from a lack of integration between sensory-based and contextual representations in memory. Instead it is argued contextual representations play a causal role in increasing the frequency of intrusions by increasing the sensitivity of memory to involuntary retrieval by associated internal and external cues.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3FX, Scotland, UK. d.g.pearson@abdn.ac.uk
authors.forename: David G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Pearson
authors.forename: Fiona D C
authors.initials: FD
authors.lastname: Ross
authors.forename: Victoria L
authors.initials: VL
authors.lastname: Webster
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003463:Cues; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult