Studies suggest that general control deficits and elevated affect intensity in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) extend beyond memory for the index trauma. However, few researchers have pursued this possibility experimentally by examining memory for novel events. We used an experimental design to measure the frequency and characteristics of involuntary memories over time. Veterans with and without PTSD saw pictures of neutral and war-related scenes. Half of the participants completed an involuntary-retrieval task immediately after encoding, whereas the other half completed the retrieval task after 1 week. Veterans with PTSD had stronger emotional reactions to their involuntary memories of the scenes regardless of their original valence. The emotional impact and specificity of the memories did not diminish over time in PTSD veterans but did so in the control group. The findings are consistent with an increased emotional response to a range of memories that include—but are not limited to—memories of traumatic events.

研究表明，创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）的总体控制缺陷和升高的影响强度超出了指数创伤的记忆范围。但是，很少有研究者通过检查新事件的记忆力来尝试这种可能性。我们使用实验设计来测量随时间推移的非自愿记忆的频率和特征。有或没有PTSD的退伍军人看到了中立和与战争有关的场景的照片。一半的参与者在编码后立即完成了非自愿检索任务，而另一半的参与者在1周后完成了检索任务。患有PTSD的退伍军人对他们对场景的非自愿记忆有更强烈的情感反应，而不管其最初的效价如何。在PTSD退伍军人中，记忆的情感影响和特异度并没有随着时间的流逝而减弱，而在对照组中却没有。这些发现与对包括但不限于创伤事件的记忆在内的一系列记忆的情感反应增加相一致。