Meta-Analysis of the Association Between Autobiographical Memory Specificity and Exposure to Trauma

Abstract

Cognitive models of emotional disorders suggest that reduced autobiographical memory specificity, resulting from exposure to traumatic events, may play an important role in the aetiology and maintenance of these disorders. However, there has yet to be a comprehensive meta-analysis of the association between trauma exposure and memory specificity, and the role of posttraumatic stress symptoms on this association. PsycINFO and MEDLINE databases were searched and data were extracted from studies regarding the mean number, or proportion of, specific memories that were recalled between participants with and without trauma exposure in the Autobiographical Memory Test. Data on differences between groups in posttraumatic stress and depressive symptoms were also extracted, along with data on trauma timing and participants’ ages at the time of assessment. The effect size of memory specificity between participants with and without exposure to trauma was large (d = .77) and differed significantly from zero (p < .001). In meta-regression, trauma timing was a significant predictor of the heterogeneity in trauma-exposure specificity effect sizes but posttraumatic stress and depressive symptoms were not. Compromised memory specificity represents an important cognitive consequence of trauma exposure that might have an important influence on risk for, and maintenance of, subsequent emotional pathologies.