| Attachment avoidance has been associated with impairments in long-term memory for emotional, attachment-related material (e.g., Fraley, Garner, & Shaver, 2000). Relatively little is known, however, about the source and extent of these memory difficulties. The present studies examined whether avoidant memory deficits are most pronounced for particularly emotional, attachment-related information, and whether these deficits can be attributed to processes occurring when information is initially encoded. In Study 1, attachment-related differences in long-term memory for experiences of child sexual abuse (CSA) were investigated. Participants were 102 documented CSA victims whose cases were referred for prosecution approximately 14 years earlier. Attachment avoidance was negatively associated with memory accuracy, but only for particularly severe CSA incidents, suggesting that avoidant individuals may be most impaired when recalling highly emotional experiences. Avoidant memory deficits were not attributable to lack of discussion about the abuse with others, a finding that is consistent with other research suggesting that post-encoding processes cannot entirely explain these memory impairments. Attachment anxiety was unrelated to memory accuracy, regardless of abuse severity. In Study 2, a working memory task was used to examine attachment-related differences in attention to attachment-related and nonattachment-related material. Consistent with the proposal that avoidant individuals restrict attention to potentially threatening information (Bowlby, 1980), avoidance was associated with decrements in working memory capacity for positive and negative attachment-related stimuli. Avoidance was unrelated to working memory capacity for nonattachment-related stimuli (both emotional and nonemotional), however, suggesting that avoidant memory deficits may be specific to material with attachment-related themes. Attachment anxiety was not associated with working memory capacity for attachment-related or nonattachment-related stimuli. Together, findings from these two studies indicate that avoidant individuals have the most difficulty recalling particularly emotional, attachment-related material, and that even positively valenced material may activate avoidant defenses. These results are also consistent with the idea that avoidant individuals restrict the processing of potentially distressing information at encoding. Finally, results from both studies indicate that attachment anxiety is unrelated to emotional memory, a finding that warrants further exploration. Implications of the two studies reported here for defensive strategies and emotional memory are discussed. |
