‘Comparisons of Traumatic and Positive Memories in People with and without PTSD Profile’ JESU ´ S L. MEGI ´ AS * , ESTRELLA RYAN, JOAQUI ´ N M. M. VAQUERO and BETTINA FRESE University of Granada, Granada, Spain SUMMARY According to most post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) theories, memory mechanisms are involved in its development and maintenance. However, the specific memory characteristics responsible for this disorder are still not well known. In the present study, 210 participants having reported at least one traumatic experience were assigned to a PTSD or to a non-PTSD symptom profile group. Both groups rated their memories for their most traumatic and intense positive life events. We observed that the traumatic memories of PTSD profile participants were more clear, detailed and judged as significant compared with those of the non-PTSD profile group. However, participants in the first group acknowledged having more difficulties putting their traumatic memories into words and controlling these remembrances. These differences were absent in their positive memories. Addition- ally, clear relationships emerged between memory ratings and PTSD symptoms measures. Results are discussed according to fragmentation and superiority views of traumatic memories in PTSD. Copyright # 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Experiencing a traumatic event normally leads to a state of psychological distress in which symptoms such as repeated and unwanted reexperiencing of the traumatic event, avoiding trauma-related situations and thoughts and hyperarousal and emotional numbing are common in the days after the event. Although most people tend to recover from these initial symptoms in the first few weeks, there are a significant number of people who continue exhibiting them months later. This constellation of disturbances is referred to as acute post- traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) when they persist at least 1 month after the experience and chronic PTSD if they are still present 3 months after (DSM-IV, American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Research in this field has devoted much effort to explain why some people recover from these traumatic experiences with no special help, while others continue suffering those symptoms months later. In order to give an appropriate explanation of this fact, many theories suggest that memory factors play a decisive role in the development of the disorder (e.g. Brewin, Dalgleish, & Joseph, 1996; Ehlers & Clark, 2000; Foa & Rothbaum, 1998; van der Kolk, 1996). However, how victims remember traumatic events and which APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY Appl. Cognit. Psychol. 21: 117–130 (2007) Published online 7 September 2006 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/acp.1282 *Correspondence to: J. L. Megı ´as, Facultad de Psicologı ´a, Campus de Cartuja, 18071, Granada (Espan ˜a). E-mail: jlmegias@ugr.es Contract/grant sponsor: Spanish Ministerio de Educacio ´n y Ciencia; contract/grant number: SEJ2004-02817. Contract/grant sponsor: University of Granada; contract/grant numbers: CONV-2003; FPU-AP99. Copyright # 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.