Ming Lei, Jiang Qiu^*, Qinglin Zhang^*

Show more
Psychological Research and Counseling Center, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China.
Key Laboratory of Personality and Cognition, Ministry of Education, Southwest University, Chongqing, China;Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
Show less

Abstract: Trauma experience not only could predict long-term physical and mental health problems, but also could have impact on the cognitive processes. Modified Stroop task and subliminal masked priming task were used to examine the automatic cognitive processing of earthquake-related stimulus (disaster-related, rescue-related, and earthquake-unrelated words) of healthy undergraduates at one month and two years since the Wenchuan earthquake happened, who came from the worst-hit areas of the Wenchuan earthquake. The results showed that the earthquake interference effects were showed in modified Stroop task and reversed priming effects were found in subliminal masked priming task at one month after the Wenchuan earthquake. However, two years later, earthquake interference effects and reversed priming effects were not found in the same experiments. The results showed the automatic cognitive processing of healthy subjects experienced trauma was affected by the earthquake episodic memory, and these interference effects were weakened with the passage of time.

Keywords: The Wenchuan Earthquake; Stroop Effect; Subliminal Masked Priming

Cite this paper: Lei, M. , Qiu, J. and Zhang, Q. (2013) The automatic processes of earthquake-related stimulus: Comparison at different time points after the Wenchuan earthquake. Natural Science, 5, 925-932. doi: 10.4236/ns.2013.58112.

References

[1]   Basoglu, M., Salcioglu, E. and Livanou, M. (2007) A randomized controlled study of single-session behaviou ral treatment of earthquake-related post-traumatic stress disorder using an earthquake simulator. Psychological Medicine, 37, 203-213. doi:10.1017/S0033291706009123

[2]   Kun, P., Chen, X., Han, S., Gong, X., Chen, M., Zhang, W., et al. (2009) Prevalence of post-traumatic stress dis order in Sichuan Province, China after the 2008 Wen chuan earthquake. Public Health, 123, 703-707. doi:10.1016/j.puhe.2009.09.017

[3]   Liao, Q., Zhang, J.X., Fu, D.J., Tu, X.G., Jiang, L., Wang, L., et al. (2008) Investigation on mental health among high school students in Chengdu one month after Wen chuan earthquake. Journal of Preventive Medicine Infor mation, 24, 930-932.

[4]   Wang, L.P., Zhang, B., Jiang, T., Xu, G.M., Yu, Z.J. and Wang, E.Y. (2005) A clinical study of posttraumatic stress disorder caused by Tangshan earthquake. Chinese Mental Health Journal, 19, 517-520.

[5]   Zhang, B., Zhang, F.G., Wang, L.P., Yu, Z.J., Wang, C.Q.,Wang, S.C., et al. (2008) A Cross-sectional study on the current prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder in adults orphaned by Tangshan earthquake in 1976. Chi nese Mental Health Journal, 22, 469-473.

[6]   Payne, B.K. and Corrigan, E. (2007) Emotional con straints on intentional forgetting. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43, 780-786. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2006.07.005

[7]   Kindt, M., Soeter, M. and Vervliet, B. (2009) Beyond extinction: Erasing human fear responses and preventing the return of fear. Nature Neuroscience, 12, 256-258. doi:10.1038/nn.2271

[8]   Eysenck, M., Derakshan, N., Santos, R. and Calvo, M. (2007) Anxiety and cognitive performance: Attentional control theory. Emotion, 7, 336-353. doi:10.1037/1528-3542.7.2.336

[9]   Layton, B. and Krikorian, R. (2002) Memory mecha nisms in posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Neuro psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 14, 254-261. doi:10.1176/appi.neuropsych.14.3.254

[10]   Bar-Haim, Y., Lamy, D., Pergamin, L., Bakermans-Kra nenburg, M. and van Ijzendoorn, M. (2007) Threat-re lated attentional bias in anxious and nonanxious indi viduals: A meta-analytic study. Psychological Bulletin, 133, 1-24. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.133.1.1

[11]   McNally, R. (2006) Cognitive abnormalities in post-trau matic stress disorder. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10, 271-277. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2006.04.007

[12]   Tucker, P., Pfefferbaum, B., North, C., Kent, A., Burgin, C., Parker, D., et al. (2007) Physiologic reactivity despite emotional resilience several years after direct exposure to terrorism. American Journal of Psychiatry, 164, 230-235. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.164.2.230

[13]   Ganzel, B., Kim, P., Glover, G. and Temple, E. (2008) Resilience after 9/11: Multimodal neuroimaging evidence for stress-related change in the healthy adult brain. Neu roimage, 40, 788-795. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.12.010

[14]   Wei, D.T., Qiu, J., Tu, S., Tian, F., Su, Y.H. and Luo, Y.J. (2010) Earthquake experience interference effects in a modified Stroop task: An ERP study. Neuroscience Let ters, 474, 121-125. doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2010.03.005

[15]   Qiu, J., Li, H., Zhang, Q., Huang, L., Guo, Y., Tu, S., et al. (2009) Electrophysiological evidence of personal expe riences in the great Sichuan earthquake impacting on se lective attention. Science in China Series C: Life Sciences, 52, 603-690.

[16]   Lei, M., Qiu, J. and Zhang, Q.L. (2013) The earthquake interference effect and traumatic episodic memory: Evi dence from two ERP studies. In: Van Leeuwen, T. and Brouwer, M., Eds., Psychology of Trauma, Nova Science Publishers, New York, 237-250.

[17]   Wei, D.T., Qiu, J., Du, X. and Luo, Y.J. (2011) Emotional arousal to negative information after traumatic experi ences: An event-related brain potential. Neuroscience, 192, 391-397. doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2011.06.055

[18]   Cohen, D.J., Dunbar, K. and McClelland, J.L. (1990) On the control of automatic processes: A parallel distributed processing account of the Stroop effect. Psychological Review, 3, 332-361. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.97.3.332

[19]   Raz, A. and Buhle, J. (2006) Typologies of attentional networks. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 7, 367-379. doi:10.1038/nrn1903

[20]   Dannlowski, U., Kersting, A., Lalee-Mentzel, J., Donges, U., Arolt, V. and Suslow, T. (2006) Subliminal affective priming in clinical depression and comorbid anxiety: A longitudinal investigation. Psychiatry Research, 143, 63 75. doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2005.08.022

[21]   Koole, S. and Coenen, L. (2007) Implicit self and affect regulation: Effects of subliminal self-activation and ac tion orientation in an affective priming task. Self and Identity, 6, 118-136. doi:10.1080/15298860601118835

[22]   Leventhal, A., Waters, A., Breitmeyer, B., Tapia, E., Miller, E. and Li, Y. (2008) Subliminal processing of smoking-related and affective stimuli in tobacco addic tion. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 16, 301-312. doi:10.1037/a0012640

[23]   Fehr, T., Wiedenmann, P. and Herrmann, M. (2006) Nico tine Stroop and addiction memory—An ERP study. In ternational Journal of Psychophysiology, 62, 224-232. doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2006.01.011

[24]   West, R. and Alain, C. (1999) Event-related neural acti vity associated with the Stroop task. Cognitive Brain Re search, 16, 157-164. doi:10.1016/S0926-6410(99)00017-8

[25]   Baumeister, R., Bratslavsky, E., Finkenauer, C. and Vohs, K. (2001) Bad is stronger than good. Review of General Psychology, 5, 323-370. doi:10.1037/1089-2680.5.4.323

[26]   Thomas, L. and LaBar, K. (2005) Emotional arousal enhances word repetition priming. Cognition & Emotion, 19, 1027-1047. doi:10.1080/02699930500172440

[27]   Yun, X.Y., Li, W., Qiu, J., Jou, J.W., Wei, D.T., Tu, S. and Zhang, Q.L. (2011) Neural mechanisms of subliminal priming for traumatic episodic memory: An ERP study. Neuroscience Letters, 498, 10-14. doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2011.04.040

[28]   Blair, K.S., Richell, R.A., Mitchell, D.G.V., Leonard, A., Morton, J. and Blair, R.J.R. (2006) They know the words, but not the music: Affective and semantic priming in individuals with psychopathy. Biological Psychology, 73, 114-123. doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2005.12.006

[29]   Holland, A.C. and Kensinger, E.A. (2010) Emotion and autobiographical memory. Physics of Life Reviews, 7, 88-131. doi:10.1016/j.plrev.2010.01.006