Biomedical subjects

Eric Eich

Publications and source records attributed to Eric Eich.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2004

Vantage point in traumatic memory.

Persons with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) spontaneously recalled the traumatic event that led to their condition from either a field or an observer vantage point. In the former case, participants recollected the event as if they were seeing it again through their own eyes; in the latter case, the event was recalled from the perspective of a detached spectator. Analysis of the two types of recollections revealed marked differences in their contents. Whereas field memories afforded richer accounts of the affective reactions, somatic sensations, and psychological states that participants experienced during the focal trauma, observer memories contained more information about participants' physical appearance and actions and the spatial layout of the traumatic scene. Observer trauma memories were also experienced as less emotional and anxiety provoking than field trauma memories. The discussion focuses on the clinical implications of these findings and prospects for future research on traumatic memory.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Vantage point in episodic memory.

University undergraduates undertook a series of manual tasks (e.g., shaping objects out of clay) and later recalled the experiences they had while doing so from either afield or an observer vantage point. In the former case, the subjects mentally reinstated the original task environment as if they were seeing it again through their own eyes; in the latter condition, the original task environment was envisioned from the perspective of a detached spectator. Analysis of the subjects' recollections revealed marked differences in the contents of field and observer memories. For instance, whereas field memories afforded richer accounts of the affective reactions, physical sensations, and psychological states that the subjects experienced as they performed the tasks, observer memories included more information about how the subjects looked, what they did, or where things were. Discussion focuses on prospects for future research whose aim would be to investigate the forensic and clinical implications of the field/observer distinction.

Adult↗

PubMed1985

Memory for pain: relation between past and present pain intensity.

Memory for the intensity of past physical pain depends critically on the intensity of present pain. When their present pain intensity was high, patients with chronic headaches of myofascial origin rated their maximum, usual, and minimum levels of prior pain as being more severe than their hourly pain diaries indicated. When their present pain intensity was low, the same patients remembered all 3 levels of prior pain as being less severe than they actually had been. The results show that pain produces systematic distortions of memory similar to those associated with alterations of affect or mood, and suggest a resolution to a conspicuous conflict in the current pain literature.

Adult↗