摘要：Background: Earlier studies have shown that horizontal eye movement (EM) during retrieval of a negative memory reduces its vividness and emotionality. This may be due to both tasks competing for working memory (WM) resources. This study examined whether playing the computer game ‘‘Tetris’’ also blurs memory. Method: Participants recalled negative and positive memories in three conditions: recall only, recall with concurrent EM, and recall with playing Tetris. Before and after these conditions, vividness, emotionality, and physiological startle responses during recall were measured. Results: A reaction time task showed that EM and Tetris both draw on WM, compared to no dual-task. Compared to recall only, EM and Tetris decreased reported emotionality and startle responses. Conclusions: The effects of EM and Tetris did not differ, even though the tasks differed in the degree of taxing WM. This suggests that taxing WM and its effects on emotional memories may not be linearly related. Potential clinical implications are discussed. Keywords: Intrusive memory; EMDR; working memory; PTSD (Published: 6 December 2010) Citation: European Journal of Psychotraumatology 2010, 1: 5623 - DOI: 10.3402/ejpt.v1i0.5623 For the abstract or full text in other languages, please see Supplementary files in the column to the right (under Reading Tools).
