Transfer of newly acquired stimulus valence between identities in dissociative identity disorder (DID)

Patients with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) frequently report episodes of interidentity amnesia, that is amnesia for events experienced by other identities. The goal of the present experiment was to test the implicit transfer of trauma-related information between identities in DID. We hypothe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Behaviour research and therapy 2005-02, Vol.43 (2), p.243-255
Main Authors: Huntjens, Rafaële J.C., Peters, Madelon L., Postma, Albert, Woertman, Liesbeth, Effting, Marieke, van der Hart, Onno
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Affective priming
Amnesia
Amnesia - complications
Amnesia - psychology
Analysis of Variance
Biological and medical sciences
Conditioning (Psychology)
Cues
Dissociative Identity Disorder
Emotions
Evaluative conditioning
Female
Humans
Medical sciences
Mental disorders
Mental Recall
Miscellaneous
Multiple Personality Disorder - complications
Multiple Personality Disorder - psychology
Psychological Tests
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Reaction Time
Self-Assessment
Stress, Psychological
Transfer (Psychology)
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Summary:Patients with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) frequently report episodes of interidentity amnesia, that is amnesia for events experienced by other identities. The goal of the present experiment was to test the implicit transfer of trauma-related information between identities in DID. We hypothesized that whereas declarative information may transfer from one identity to another, the emotional connotation of the memory may be dissociated, especially in the case of negative, trauma-related emotional valence. An evaluative conditioning procedure was combined with an affective priming procedure, both performed by different identities. In the evaluative conditioning procedure, previously neutral stimuli come to refer to a negative or positive connotation. The affective priming procedure was used to test the transfer of this acquired valence to an identity reporting interidentity amnesia. Results indicated activation of stimulus valence in the affective priming task, that is transfer of emotional material between identities.
ISSN:0005-7967
1873-622X
DOI:10.1016/j.brat.2004.01.007