Attentional Bias for Trauma-Film Reminders: Towards a Laboratory Analogue for Studying the Role of Attention in the Persistence of Intrusive Memories

Two experiments examined whether exposure to a trauma-film induced an attentional bias (AB) for intrinsically neutral (visual) reminders of the film. In experiment 1, half of the participants (n = 33) completed a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task after presentation of a trauma film, whereas the other participants (n = 32) engaged in this task without prior film-exposure. During the RSVP, participants were to detect neutral targets (rotated landscapes) in a stream of images that also included visual distracters consisting of stills depicting persons and objects that featured in the film as well as visual control distracters unrelated to the film. In line with predictions, participants who saw the film prior to the RSVP task showed a relatively strong deterioration of task performance when targets were preceded by film distracters. Results of a second experiment suggested that this AB could be best explained by an acquired motivational salience of the inherently neutral film reminders in the RSVP rather than by a mere familiarity effect. Thus, the current RSVP methodology seems to be a viable analogue method for studying AB after stressful or traumatic experiences. Copyright (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd