Trauma-related versus positive involuntary thoughts with and without meta-awareness

Date

2016

Authors

Green, D.M.
Strange, D.
Lindsay, D.S.
Takarangi, M.K.T.

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Consciousness and Cognition, 2016; 46:163-172

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Deanne M. Green, Deryn Strange, D. Stephen Lindsay, Melanie K.T. Takarangi

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Abstract

In earlier work, we asked subjects to report involuntary thoughts relating to a trauma film and also probed subjects periodically. Subjects often reported involuntary thoughts in response to probes, suggesting they lacked meta-awareness of those thoughts. But it is possible that some or all probe-detected thoughts were continuations of thoughts subjects had spontaneously reported, leading us to overestimate involuntary thoughts lacking metaawareness. It is also unclear whether failures in meta-awareness occur for other emotional events. We exposed subjects to a negative or positive film. Subsequently, they reported involuntary film-related thoughts and responded to probes that distinguished new from continuing thoughts. Many (54%) but not all probe-caught thoughts were thought continuations. This result supports our earlier finding that people can lack meta-awareness for trauma-related thoughts, but suggests caution in how meta-awareness is assessed. We also found that self-caught negative and positive involuntary thoughts occurred at a similar frequency, with different characteristics.

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© 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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