Date Thesis Awarded
4-2008
Access Type
Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only
Degree Name
Bachelors of Arts (BA)
Department
Psychology
Advisor
Chris Ball
Committee Members
Glenn Shean
Charles Palermo
Abstract
Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), a therapy that treats many trauma-related disorders by requiring patients to perform rapid eye movements, has raised controversy because it lacks the support of a proven theoretical rationale. A recent theoretical explanation proposes that the eye movements reduce the vividness of the distressing images by disrupting the function of the visuospatial sketchpad (VSSP) of working memory, but support for this model has been weakened by methodological flaws that the current study attempted to overcome. The present study compared the effects of tracking rhythmic and arrhythmic stimuli on the recall of arousing television shock-ads. Eye-movement conditions did not significantly differ in terms of vividness, emotionality, or accuracy of memory as compared to the control condition. Arrhythmic targets increased the negative emotional response and decreased the vividness of the memories, but neither rhythmic nor arrhythmic target patterns produced responses that differed from the control condition. Heart rate recordings taken throughout the study did not suggest that arousal mediates the relationship between eye-movement patterns and vividness. The present study does not support the VSSP theory but provides valuable insights on the direction of future research.
Recommended Citation
Pastva, Amy Marie, "The Effects of Rhythmic and Arrhythmic Eye Movements on Memory Recall" (2008). Undergraduate Honors Theses. William & Mary. Paper 785.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/785
Creative Commons License
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Comments
Thesis is part of Honors ETD pilot project, 2008-2013. Migrated from Dspace in 2016.