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Marko Jelicic

Publications and source records attributed to Marko Jelicic.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Traumatic memories of war veterans: not so special after all.

Several authors have argued that traumatic experiences are processed and remembered in a qualitatively different way from neutral events. To investigate this issue, we interviewed 121 Croatian war veterans diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) about amnesia, intrusions (i.e., flashbacks and nightmares), and the sensory qualities of their most horrific war memories. Additionally, they completed a self-report scale measuring dissociative experiences. In contrast to what one would expect on the basis of theories emphasizing the special status of traumatic memories, amnesia, and high frequency intrusions were not particularly typical for our sample of traumatized individuals. Moreover, traumatic memories were not qualitatively different from neutral memories with respect to their stability and sensory qualities. The severity of PTSD symptoms was not significantly correlated with dissociative experiences. Our findings do not support the existence of special memory mechanisms that are unique to experiencing traumatic events.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

The false fame illusion in people with memories about a previous life.

The present study examined whether individuals with full-blown memories of highly implausible events are prone to commit source monitoring errors. Participants reporting previous-life memories and those without such memories completed a false fame task. This task provides an index of source monitoring errors (i.e., misclassifying familiar non-famous names as famous names). Participants with previous-life memories had a greater tendency to judge the names of previously presented non-famous people as famous than control participants. The two groups did not differ in terms of correct recognition of new non-famous names and famous names. Although dissociation, cognitive failures, sleep-related experiences, depressive symptoms, and signs of psychological distress were all significantly higher in participants with previous-life memories than in controls, these variables did not predict the false fame illusion.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

The effect of acute stress on memory depends on word valence.

The present study investigated the effect of acute stress on working memory and memory for neutral, emotionally negative, and emotionally positive words in healthy undergraduates. Participants (N=60) were exposed to either the Trier Social Stress Test (stress group) or a non-stressful task (control group). Analyses of salivary cortisol samples taken throughout the study showed elevated glucocorticoid levels after the experimental manipulation in the stress group, but not in the control group. Recall performance was impaired in the stress group, but only so for neutral words. No differences between the stress and control group were found on working memory measures. For the stress group, digit span forward and digit span total scores were associated with correct recall of neutral words. All in all, this study lends further support to the notion that the memory effects of exposure to acute stress depend on the valence of the memory material.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Symptom overreporting and recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse.

The authenticity of recovered memories is a much debated issue. Surprisingly, no study has systematically looked at symptom overreporting in people claiming recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse (CSA). In a first sample we administered the Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology (SIMS) to individuals who said they had recovered CSA memories (n=66), individuals who said their CSA had always been accessible (continuous CSA memory group; n=119), and controls who said they had no CSA experiences (n=83). In a second sample individuals reporting recovered (n=45) or continuous (n=45) CSA memories completed the Morel Emotional Numbing Test (MENT). Our aim was to compare these groups with regard to their tendency to overreport symptoms. The results indicate that people with recovered memories do not score higher on the SIMS and the MENT than other CSA survivors suggesting that symptom overreporting is not typical for people reporting recovered memories.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Mild executive dysfunctions in undergraduates are related to recollecting words never presented.

The aim of this study was to explore whether individual differences in executive function in undergraduate students (n = 72) contribute to false recall and recognition as obtained with the Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. Participants were subjected to the DRM paradigm and also were given a test designed to assess executive function--the Random Number Generation task (RNG). A relationship was found between heightened seriation on the RNG (indicating a deficiency in the ability to inhibit cognitive schemes) and false recognition of non-presented, critical lure words in the DRM paradigm. This suggests that individual differences in executive function do occur in a healthy population and that the reconstructive activity inherent in memory depends in part on executive functioning.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Detecting malingering of Ganser-like symptoms with tests: a case study.

A middle-aged man presented with Ganser symptoms. He had been involved in a car crash and was seeking disability insurance benefits. Extensive testing with malinger instruments revealed that he performed below chance on simple memory tests and endorsed a variety of nonexistent symptoms. With this in mind, the authors collected collateral information which showed that the patient was involved in high level sports activities that were difficult to reconcile with the severe cognitive dysfunctions that he claimed to suffer from. The case demonstrates that Ganser-like symptoms deserve close scrutiny, preferably with malinger tests.

Accidents, Traffic↗
PubMed2006

Forgetting of prior remembering in persons reporting recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse.

Case studies of individuals reporting recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse suggest that some overestimate their prior forgetting of the abuse. People reporting recovered or continuous memories of childhood sexual abuse and control subjects reporting no history of abuse participated in two experiments examining this "forgot it all along" phenomenon. Participants in Experiment 1 were more likely to forget that they had previously recalled a studied item if they were cued to think of it differently on two recall tests than if they were cued to think of it in the same way on the two tests. This effect was stronger for recovered-memory participants than for continuous-memory and control participants. In Experiment 2, participants recalled autobiographical events three times over a period of 4 months. Much as in Experiment 1, they underestimated prior remembering when the events had been recalled in a different emotional frame (positive vs. negative) on the previous occasion. This underestimation was more pronounced for recovered-memory participants than for continuous-memory and control participants.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Long term consequences of suppression of intrusive anxious thoughts and repressive coping.

The current experiment employed a thought suppression paradigm to investigate whether repressors (N=40) are more skilled in suppressing positive and anxious autobiographical thoughts than low anxious (N=40), high anxious (N=40), and defensive high anxious (N=40) individuals, both immediately and over a longer time period (i.e., 7 days). Regardless of suppression instructions, repressors reported during their lab visit fewer target thoughts for their most anxious events than participants in the other three groups. However, over a 7 days period, repressors showed the highest number of intrusive thoughts about their anxious autobiographical events. Thus, our results demonstrate that repressive coping might be adaptive in the short run, but counterproductive in the long run.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2005

Stress-induced cortisol responses, sex differences, and false recollections in a DRM paradigm.

The current studies investigated whether acute stress potentiates false recollections (so-called "false memories") in a Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm, and whether sex differences modulate these effects. Participants were assigned to either a stress (trier social stress test) or a control group. Subsequently, they were subjected to DRM word lists and probed for recall and recognition. Results showed no differences between the stress and control group on measures of false recollections (Study 1; N=60). Even though correct recall was impaired by acute stress, there were no differences between high or low cortisol responders and controls on false recall or recognitions rates (Study 2; N=92). These results suggest that cortisol responses do not directly potentiate false recollections. Neither in Study 1 nor in Study 2 did we find any evidence that the effects of cortisol on false recollections are different in men and women, although there was an indication that independent of stress men produced more commission errors.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Retrieval inhibition of trauma-related words in women reporting repressed or recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse.

Several authors have argued that survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) who report to have repressed their traumatic memories are more skilled in forgetting emotional stimuli than survivors who have always remembered the abuse. The current experiment employed a list-wise directed forgetting task to investigate whether women reporting repressed (n = 16) or recovered (n = 23) memories of CSA are better at forgetting disturbing material, relative to women reporting having always remembered their abuse (n = 55) or reporting no history of abuse (n = 20). We found no support for the hypothesis that women reporting repressed or recovered memories of CSA are especially versed in inhibiting retrieval of trauma-related words. Additional analyses revealed that participants characterized by a repressive coping style did not display a superior retrieval inhibition mechanism for negative material.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Fantasy proneness, but not self-reported trauma is related to DRM performance of women reporting recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse.

Extending a strategy previously used by , we administered a neutral and a trauma-related version of the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm to a sample of women reporting recovered (n=23) or repressed memories (n=16) of childhood sexual abuse (CSA), women reporting having always remembered their abuse (n=55), and women reporting no history of abuse (n=20). We found that individuals reporting recovered memories of CSA are more prone than other participants to falsely recalling and recognizing neutral words that were never presented. Moreover, our study is the first to show that this finding even held when trauma-related material was involved. Correlational analyses revealed that fantasy proneness, but not self-reported traumatic experiences and dissociative symptoms were related to false recall and false recognition.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed2005

Trying to recollect past events: confidence, beliefs, and memories.

Numerous studies claim to have shown that false memories can be easily created in the laboratory. However, a critical analysis of the methods employed in these studies indicates that many of them do not address memory in the strict sense of the word. Instead, some of these studies assess the confidence that participants have in a fictitious (childhood) event, while others pertain to false beliefs about childhood events. While it is difficult to draw precise demarcation lines, we argue that inflated confidence, false beliefs, and false memories are different phenomena. Keeping the origins of these studies in mind (i.e., people who file lawsuits on the basis of their recovered memories), we propose that a fruitful, but stringent definition of false memories would incorporate their consequences. Thus, we argue that this research domain would profit from studies looking explicitly at whether experimental manipulations intended to implant false memories have overt behavioral consequences.

Attitude↗
PubMed2004

Symptom validity testing of feigned amnesia for a mock crime.

Perpetrators sometimes claim loss of memory for the crimes they have committed. For the neuropsychologist, the veracity of such crime-related amnesia is difficult to assess. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether Symptom Validity Testing (SVT) can be used to detect feigning of crime-related amnesia. Undergraduate students (N = 39) were instructed to commit a mock crime and asked to feign complete amnesia for the event. Subsequently, they were given 25 forced-choice items about the "crime" that were always followed by the correct answer and an equally plausible alternative. To counteract chance performance, test items were intermixed with 25 bogus questions that contained two equally plausible alternatives. Results show that a majority of participants (59%) scored below chance level on the critical items of the SVT. In addition, debriefing interviews showed that understanding the rationale behind the SVT was not related to chance performance. SVT procedures therefore might be helpful in identifying feigned crime-related amnesia.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Traumatic stress, brain changes, and memory deficits: a critical note.

Memory deficits are frequently observed in posttraumatic stress disorder. According to some authors, these memory impairments are a result of hippocampal damage caused by traumatic stress. This article contains a critical review of studies on changes in hippocampal volume and memory performance in posttraumatic stress disorder. We conclude that most studies in this area suffer from methodological weaknesses and therefore do no allow for firm conclusions about the causal linkage among traumatic stress, hippocampal functioning, and memory. Suggestions for future research, circumventing methodological flaws, are given.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

How to change implicit drug use-related cognitions in prevention: a transdisciplinary integration of findings from experimental psychopathology, social cognition, memory, and experimental learning psychology.

A recent study from our lab found that an intervention aimed at changing alcohol-related cognitions in heavy drinkers resulted in significant changes in explicit cognitions, in the absence of changes in implicit cognitions. This raised the question how implicit alcohol- and drug-related cognitions could successfully be changed. Here, the literature on changing implicit cognitions from four areas of research is reviewed: 1) memory research (resistance to change of implicit vs. explicit memories); 2) learning psychology (attempts to change learned associations); 3) experimental psychopathology (attempts to change an attentional bias); and 4) social cognition research (attempts to change implicit attitudes). Further, studies directly aimed at changing implicit drug-related cognitions are reviewed. From the integrative review, it is argued that it is important to consider the level of representation (i.e., specific vs. global) when comparing studies aimed at changing implicit cognitions: there is converging evidence that specific implicit cognitions and memories are resistant to change, whereas global implicit cognitions and memories appear to be more malleable. The results are integrated into an overall picture of what it takes to change implicit cognitions in general and what can be expected with respect to the effects of such a change on behavior, and how this could be used in alcohol-use and drug use-related preventive interventions.

Biomedical Research↗
PubMed2002

Subjective sleep problems in later life as predictors of cognitive decline. Report from the Maastricht Ageing Study (MAAS).

BACKGROUND: Although biological sleep criteria seem to be associated with cognitive changes in older people, it is not clear if subjective sleep parameters are related to cognitive decline in later life. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to determine whether subjective sleep complaints in a population-based sample of 838 middle aged and older adults (>or= 50 years) predicted cognitive decline over a period of 3 years. METHODS: Sleep complaints at baseline, assessed with the subscale Sleep Problems of the Symptoms Checklist-90, were used as a predictor variable. Cognitive performance at follow-up, measured with the Mini Mental Status Examination, was employed as a dependent variable. RESULTS: Controlling for the effects of age, gender, length of follow-up interval, systemic diseases, and cognitive function at baseline, subjective sleep complaints were negatively associated with cognitive performance at follow-up. CONCLUSION: Subjective sleep complaints predict cognitive decline in middle aged and older adults. Mechanisms behind the effect of subjective sleep complaints on cognitive performance are discussed.

Aged↗