摘要：Individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often report intrusive memories that appear to lack the appropriate spatio-temporal context. We examined whether focusing on the spatio-temporal context of aversive autobiographical memories reduces negative emotions, appraisals, and re-experiencing symptoms. Methods: We recruited 109 healthy adults and had them rate emotionality, vividness, and reexperiencing of an aversive autobiographical memory. Furthermore, we assessed automatic associations of idiosyncratic memory triggers with the concepts ‘past’ vs. ‘now’, and selfreported sense of memory closure and distancing. To manipulate spatio-temporal memory (re-)organization, the experimental group (n = 53) performed a lifeline exercise in virtual reality (VR), where participants symbolically placed memory triggers along a path representing their own personal life story. The control group (n = 56) completed a non-personalized VR task. Results: We found a marked decrease in negative emotions, negative appraisals, and reexperiencing in the following week, but on average, the lifeline exercise was not superior to the control condition. However, those in the lifeline group with stronger trigger-past associations subsequently exhibited a more pronounced reduction in re-experiencing. Also, participants with a higher subjective sense of memory distancing reported less re-experiencing. Conclusions: The findings lend tentative support for theoretical assumptions about PTSD, but the potential causal role of automatic associations with spatio-temporal information remains to be clarified.
关键词：Autobiographical memory;single category implicit association test;sense of closure;psychological distancing;phenomenology;imagery
