Preview of forgetting Trauma article - Research Paper Example

Preview of forgetting Trauma article Introduction A variety of cognitive tasks have been employed by many researchers in their quest to unveil the various roles played by inhibition and executive control on numerous problems of memory that arises from stress disorders due to post-trauma (PTSD) (Brown, Kramer, Romano & Hirst, 2012). The application of the cognitive tasks were also meant to unveil similar roles played by inhibition and executive control, but this time round on anxiety disorders.

Previous studies have indicated that persons with PSTD have tasks problems (Brown, Kramer, Romano & Hirst, 2012). The use of retrieval-induced forgetting paradigm commonly known as RIF has also been employed in the study for the roles of executive control and inhibition. The use of RIF method employs three conditions and these conditions are Rp+, Rp-, and Nrp with the positive condition meant for pair testing while the negative condition is meant for unpracticed pairs (Brown, Kramer, Romano & Hirst, 2012).

The last condition carries out testing categorically for pairs with no connection to Rp conditions. Theory According to the established research the various roles played by inhibition when it comes to RIF method indicates that this method might be missing in the PTSD and this might occur when the material of the trauma is incorporated. The missing of RIF method in PTSD is supported by two separate studies (Brown, Kramer, Romano & Hirst, 2012). The availability of RIF method in social phobic for both neutral and positive stimuli is confirmed, but when it comes to negative social phobic the availability is lacking.

The second study indicated that RIF method was missing in the trauma group but present in the non-anxious controls experiment. Research questions Will the PTSD group comprise of the various non-clinical populations? Will the individuals present in the PTSD group record higher scores on the various anxiety and depression measures? Will the stimulus material used by the researchers like Amir et al. (2009) include words which are considered as threats? Will other clinical populations facing problems of executive control manifest normal RIF?

Hypotheses Scientific hypothesis Will the observations of both WI-RIF and SS-RIF in accordance to the OEF and OIF veterans yield PTSD research? Will the second experiment yield the same results as the first experiment for PTSD research? Testing hypothesis Will the design of the study be similar to the study concerning paired-associates experiment conducted by Anderson et al. (1994)? Working hypothesis Will there be a deficit in the various observations in RIF presented in the extant variants of the various paradigms of RIF.

Will the stimulus material avail the sensitivity of the trauma under observations? Type of research Researches can be grouped into four main types and the types are quantitative, qualitative, mixed, and participatory approach. The use of participatory approach requires the researchers to live among the participants. Quantitative research on the other hand involves data collection and analysis while qualitative research involves development of theories that can be used to explain the different phenomena.

The final approach is mixed approach in which the researchers apply both qualitative and quantitative approaches. In this article the two approaches applied are qualitative and quantitative; the researchers were able to develop theories such as RIF method which could be used to explain the PTSD cases (Brown, Kramer, Romano & Hirst, 2012). At the same time they were able to employ experiment to enable them to gather information and valuable data that could assists them in their research. The use of the experiments implies the application of quantitative approach; the data that were obtained from quantitative approach were used for the discussion and results analysis.

Reliability This is the likelihood or the probability of the occurrence of things in accordance to the already planned manner or purpose. The experiments performed found some reliability on the WI-RIF and SS-RIF methods (Brown, Kramer, Romano & Hirst, 2012). This is because the impairments of both WI-RIF and SS-RIF proved to be at the same level with the veterans in the PSTD. There was availability of RIF combat material for both experiment 1 and 2 and RIF was present with PSTD. Generally the results of the experiments showed some reliability with the PSTD and this presented a difference in the previous failures (Brown, Kramer, Romano & Hirst, 2012 p.33). Setting The setting of the inhibition and executive control roles were based on the two experiments that were conducted for veterans without and with PTSD as well as non-veterans who had no PTSD.

The second experiment was set in New York City and the total number of all the recruited participants was equivalent to 60 (Brown, Kramer, Romano & Hirst, 2012). This is similar to the setting of the first experiment which was also hosted in New York City and the total number of participants was equivalent to 120. The same procedure was used to get participants and the methodology was also similar in both the two experiments. The use of PCL-M method was employed in the case of the military version and for civilian version PCL-L method was used (Brown, Kramer, Romano & Hirst, 2012).

Reference Brown, A.D., Kramer, M.E., Romano, T.A. & Hirst, W. (2012). Forgetting Trauma: Socially Shared Retrieved-induced Forgetting and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 26: 24-34