%0 Journal Article
%T The impact of trauma exposure on explicit and implicit memory
%J Anxiety, stress, and coping
%D 2020
%A Grégoire, Laurent
%A Gosselin, Isabelle
%A Blanchette, Isabelle
%V 33
%N 1
%P 1-18
%X OBJECTIVES: The present study aimed to determine whether explicit and implicit memory systems are modulated by the type of content (neutral, emotional trauma-related and generally-emotional) in sexual abuse victims who did not develop PTSD, compared to non-exposed controls.<br><br>DESIGN: A mixed-factorial design with Content (neutral, trauma-related, generally-emotional) as a within-subject variable and Group (victims, controls) as a between-subject variable was used in two experiments.<br><br>METHODS: In both experiments, participants were required to learn three stories presented orally: a neutral, an emotional trauma-related (sexual abuse) and a generally-emotional story. In Experiment 1, participants' memory was tested with two explicit tasks (free recall and Remember/Know/Guess) and one implicit task (word-fragment completion task). In Experiment 2, a modified version of the word-fragment completion task was presented, followed by an awareness questionnaire to ensure the implicit character of the test.<br><br>RESULTS: Victims showed lower performances with neutral contents, relative to controls, in explicit and implicit tasks. However, this difference was not observed with trauma-related contents suggesting this information is preferentially processed by trauma-exposed participants (with increased attentional resources).<br><br>CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that trauma exposure may itself be associated with implicit and explicit memory alterations, even for individuals who did not develop PTSD.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>
%G en
%I Informa - Taylor and Francis Group
%@ 1061-5806
%U http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10615806.2019.1664477