New Insights in Trauma and Memory A Special Issue of Memory

How people remember – and forget – traumatic experiences is a highly controversial issue in psychiatry and psychology. At the moment, the field of trauma and memory is dominated by several controversies (for a review, see Brewin, 2007). The purpose of this special issue is to highlight studies examining remembering and forgetting in people who report having experienced traumatic events. Moreover, this issue will also focus on research manipulating memory functioning, thereby providing us important information regarding the status of traumatic memories. This research on trauma and memory may provide important clues to the architecture and characteristics of both abnormal and normal memory functioning.

Geraerts, Jelicic, Editorial: New Insights in Trauma and Memory. Engelhard, van den Hout, McNally, Memory Consistency for Traumatic Events in Dutch Soldiers Deployed to Iraq. Peace, Porter, Brinke, Are Memories for Sexually Traumatic Events "Special"? A Within-subjects Investigation of Trauma and Memory in a Clinical Sample. Geraerts, McNally, Jelicic, Raymaekers, Linking Thought Suppression and Recovered Memories of Childhood Sexual Abuse. London, Bruck, Wright, Ceci, How Children Report Sexual Abuse to Others: Findings and Methodological Issues. Hall, Berntsen, The Effect of Emotional Stress on Involuntary and Voluntary Conscious Memories. Paz-Alonzo, Goodman, Trauma and Memory: Effects of Post-event Misinformation, Retrieval Order, and Retention Interval. Öst, Granhag, Udell, Roos af Hjelmsäter, Familiarity Breeds Distortion: The Effects of Media Exposure on False Reports Concerning Media Coverage of the Terrorist Attacks in London on 7th July 2005.

Elke Geraerts is at the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. Marko Jelicic is at the Department of Clinical Psychological Science, Maastricht University inthe Netherlands.