The Effect Of Eye Movements On False Memories Of Negative Emotional Events In EMDR

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing is one of the important treatments for trauma management.Eye movement is one of the core tools in EMDR,which is a type of bilateral stimulation in EMDR.It refers to the uniform and cyclic movement of the client’ s eyes from side to side,recalling the troubling memory while moving the eyes.Previous research has found that eye movement desensitization reprocessing can address traumatic memories,allowing the client to make the disturbing memory less vivid and less emotionally charged.This has significant implications for individual development.However,the effect of eye movements on false memories in eye movement desensitization reprocessing and its rationale need to be further investigated.Previous studies on the reduction of memory vividness caused by eye movements were mostly directed at the autobiographical memory of individuals,and the reported memory vividness and emotionality were also mostly taken as self-reported subjective scores without objective indicators,which made it difficult to exclude the main effect,and then the misleading information paradigm was used to study the effect of eye movements on false memory.If the memory really became blurred.,there will be more false memories.However,the results of the effect of eye movements on false memory were inconsistent.Therefore,this study used the misleading information interference paradigm to study the effect of eye movements on false memories.Discussing the role of eye movements in this paradigm is more objective than self-report.It is able to explore the effect of eye movements on false memory for negative emotional events,to explore the effect of eye movements on false memory for negative emotional events when performed at different stages,and also to explore the effect of eye movements on false memory for different emotional events.This study used the misleading information paradigm to examine the effect of eye movements on false memories at the behavioral level.Study one used an independent samples t-test,divided into an eye-movement group and a non-eye-movement group,and the dependent variables were the number of correct test question responses,the number of correct reasons for selection,and the number of correct misinformation questions to examine the effect of eye-movement on false memory for negative emotional events.In Study 2,an independent samples t-test was conducted,with one group being the post-video eye movement group and one group being the post-statement eye movement group,simulating the "desensitization" and " implantation" phases of EMDR,respectively;the dependent variables were the total number of correct responses to test questions,the number of correct responses to misleading questions,and the number of correct reason choices.The dependent variables were the number of correct responses to the test questions,the number of correct responses to the misleading questions,and the number of correct reason choices,to examine the effect of eye movements at different stages of EMDR on false memories of negative emotional events.Study 3 adopted a 2(emotional nature of the event: positive,negative)× 2(eye movement task: eye movement,no eye movement)two-factor between-subjects design,with the dependent variables being the number of total correct responses to test questions,the number of correct responses to misleading questions,and the number of correct reason choices,to examine the effect of eye movement on false memory for different emotional events.The results obtained were as follows:Study one found that eye movements had a significant effect on false memories of negative emotional events,with the eye movement group being more likely to produce false memories relative to the non-eye movement group.Study two found that eye movements performed at different stages had significant effects on false memories,with the group performing eye movements after the presentation producing more false memories than the group performing eye movements after the video.Study three found significant differences in the effects of eye movements on different emotional events,where the main effect of eye movements was significant,with the eye movement group producing more false memories than the non-eye movement group,and the main effect of emotions was significant,with negative emotional events producing more false memories,with no significant main effect of eye movements and emotions and a significant eye movement × emotion interaction on the reason for selection.The above findings showed that eye movements in oculomotor desensitization reprocessing had a greater effect on false memories,and both were able to significantly increase individuals’ false memories;the effect of performing eye movements at different stages was inconsistent,and more false memories were produced by performing eye movements after the statement;eye movements also had a greater effect on false memories of different emotional events,and both were able to increase their false memories,and negative emotions had more false memories,and the reasons for discriminative selection in the The interaction was significant,and the negative emotion group had more difficulty discriminating the source of memory after eye movements than the positive emotion group after eye movements.