A developmental psychopathology framework, with its emphasis on an interdisciplinaryperspective, the interplay between work conducted with normal and atypical populations, and itsfocus on investigating functioning in multiple domains of development concurrently, possessessignificant potential for advancing work on memory and trauma. A brief historical overview ofmemory and trauma is provided. Significant issues are highlighted that must be confronted inorder to advance the understanding of the effects of trauma on memory and the utility of adevelopmental psychopathology perspective for informing research efforts is examined. Theimplications of a developmental psychopathology perspective for guiding research, clinical, andsocial policy initiatives of relevance to trauma and memory are discussed.

Because nearly all human behavior depends to some degree onfunctioning of the memory system, progress in understanding the diverse psychopathologicaleffects of trauma must be expected to reflect the state of research and theory on human memory.An informal survey of literature on research in psychopathology reveals increasing attention toprocesses of memory and cognition but an absence of citations of the models of memory thatsubsume research results and mediate their applications. In this article, a series of steps is takenwith the aim of redressing this situation. The first is an overview of contemporary models ofmemory. From these a set of widely supported assumptions about basic processes and structuresis abstracted to form a composite model, which is illustrated in application to several majorresearch paradigms. Finally, consideration is given to implications of the composite model foreffects of psychopathological trauma and for some aspects of the maturation and decline ofmemory functions throughout the life span.

The impact of traumatic experiences on cognitive processes,especially memory, is reviewed. The major psychological sequelae of trauma (reexperiencing,avoidance, hypervigilance) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are noted and related totraditional views of fear conditioning. Evidence indicating enhanced memory for the gist ofemotional events is reviewed as are psychological and neurophysiological mechanismsunderlying this enhancement. This view is updated by introducing the distinction betweenexplicit and implicit memory and its relevance to traumatic memory and PTSD. The central roleof “the experiencing ego” in the storage and retrieval of episodic memories ispostulated. This leads into discussion of dissociative experiences during traumas and theoccasional amnesia for voluntary recall of the trauma accompanied by involuntary,uncontrollable flashbacks of it. The relationship of dissociative experiences to hypnotizabilityand to pathological reactions to traumas is discussed, although the interpretation of thosecorrelations is questioned. The article concludes by noting that beyond conditioning of fear,traumas often violate and shake the victims' basic assumptions about the benevolence,justice, and meaningfulness of their physical and social worlds. Psychotherapy with traumavictims then needs to attend not only to extinguishing the victims' fear and feelings ofextreme vulnerability, but also to rebuilding their basic beliefs about the relative benevolence ofthe world.

Of major interest to those concernedwith early mnemonic process and function is the question of whether early memories likelyencoded without the benefit of language later are accessible to verbal report. In the context of acontrolled laboratory study, we examined this question in children who were 16 and 20 monthsat the time of exposure to specific target events and who subsequently were tested for theirmemories of the events after a delay of either 6 or 12 months (at 22–32 months) and thenagain at 3 years. At the first delayed-recall test, children evidenced memory both nonverbally andverbally. Nonverbal mnemonic expression was related to age at the time of test; verbalmnemonic expression was related to verbal fluency at the time of test. At the seconddelayed-recall test, children evidenced continued accessibility of their early memories. Verbalmnemonic expression was related to previous mnemonic expression, both nonverbal and verbal,each of which contributed unique variance. The relevance of these findings on memory forcontrolled laboratory events for issues of memory for traumatic experiences is discussed.

It is argued that memory for traumatic events is similar to that forother distinctive, personally significant events regardless of whether they are affectively positiveor negative. Examined in this light, the focus now shifts to the role of individual differences inneurobiological, social, cognitive, and constitutional factors that conspire to determine long-termretention of significant autobiographical experiences. What is known about these factors indetermining memorability is reviewed, issues of measurement inadequacies discussed, andrecommendations for further research outlined.

Whereas the social and emotionalconsequences of childhood trauma are well documented, less is known about how young childrenunderstand, represent, and remember traumatic experiences. A review of the literature indicatesstriking similarities in the development of young children's ability to recall traumatic andnontraumatic events. More specifically, events experienced before the age of about 18 months donot seem to be verbally accessible; events experienced between about 18 months and2.5–3 years are reported in fragmentary fashion and seem to be prone to increasing errorover time. From about age 3 years on, children can give reasonably coherent accounts of theirpast experiences and can retain these memories over long durations. The ways in which childrenare able to participate in conversations about events as they are occurring and in retrospect seemsto play a critical role in their developing event memories. Implications of the empirical data forunderstanding trauma memory in childhood are discussed.

In this review we examinefactors hypothesized to affect children's memory for traumatic events. Theoretical ideas onthe processing and remembering of trauma are presented and critiqued. We review research onhow psychopathology may generally influence and dissociation and posttraumatic stress disordermay specifically influence children's memory and suggestibility. The special case of childmaltreatment is addressed as it relates to interviewing children about traumatic life experiences.Throughout we draw on current developmental, cognitive, social, and clinical theory andresearch. The review covers a controversial and exciting area of psychological inquiry.

Research on the effects of child maltreatment and exposure to communityviolence suggests that children who experience these types of traumatic events may be at risk foralterations and biases in attention and memory similar to those that have been observed in adultssuffering from traumatic stress reactions. Along these lines, attachment theory posits thatrepresentational models of relationships also may act as moderators of similar cognitive biasesby selectively guiding children's attention to and processing of interpersonal stimuli.Building upon the trauma and attachment literatures, the present investigation examined the linksamong trauma, representational models of caregivers, and children's memory formother-relevant information using an incidental recall task in a sample of maltreated(n = 71) and nonmaltreated (n = 102) children between the ages of 8 and 13years.Results were consistent with the hypothesis that experiences of trauma and representationalmodels of caregivers are associated with differences in the way children process and retrieveinformation about positive and negative mother attribute words. In particular, experiences oftrauma initially were associated with increased insecurity in children's representationalmodels. Moreover, the interaction of traumatic experience and security of mental representationpredicted children's recall for mother attribute words: victimized children with insecuremodels recalled the highest proportion of negative mother stimuli. Trauma and mentalrepresentation did not have a consistent effect on structurally encoded aspects of recall. Resultswere discussed in terms of the ways in which children who have experienced trauma processinformation about their worlds. The importance of assessing functioning in multipledevelopmental domains when studying memory also was discussed.

The present article addresses issues concerning thecomplex relation between memory and trauma in childhood and adult life. Research findingsshowing how children and adults remember public and personal emotional events are presented,and mechanisms functioning to hold traumatic memories back from awareness are discussed. Inthe final section, developmental aspects are addressed by considering the interplay between childand adult trauma. Several cases are described that show how childhood trauma may berepresented in memory and influence later development and adult memory processes.

How do clinical observations of repressionsquare with experimental evidence suggesting that emotionally arousing memories are especiallyenduring? This discrepancy can be understood by examining three kinds of memory distortionsthat give the impression in a clinical context, of repression. Potentially traumatic events such aschildhood sexual abuse (CSA) may be subject to ordinary forgetting. Recent research suggestspeople who fail to understand the sexual nature of CSA report that they remember it less well. Inother words, the event occurred and it was forgotten, but not “repressed.” Inaddition, people may be wrong about experiencing a period of forgetting, i.e. the event occurredbut was never forgotten. Finally, people may believe that a particular traumatic event occurredand was repressed when, in fact, it did not happen in the first place. Under certain circumstances,some combination of these distortions could lead to situations that are mistakenly interpreted asrepression.

Many aspects of brain development dependon experience. Because the major macro-morphological events of brain development occur overthe first 2–3 years of postnatal life, this time period can be considered both a period ofopportunity as well as a period of vulnerability. In this paper we describe how experience withstress early in life can have a negative impact on certain aspects of brain development, andspecifically, those neural circuits that underlie memory. We also describe the effects of traumaticevents on the development of the neural basis of memory. In support of our argument, we reviewthe literature on brain, stress, and memory in the context of development. Based on this review,we suggest that the developing brain is particularly vulnerable to the harmful physiologicaleffects of stress, which in turn has the potential to lead to impairments in memory.Unfortunately, there are few empirical data that directly address this hypothesis. In this contextwe offer a number of suggestions for future research.

Emotionand memory are examined within a developmental framework. The point of departure for thisdiscussion is the study of maltreated children whose traumatic experiences have been linked todifficulties in emotional development. It is suggested that cognitive processes such as memoryand attention serve to link experience with emotion and emotion with psychopathology. Thus, aninformation processing approach is used to explain the development of maltreatedchildren's adaptive and maladaptive coping responses. It is argued that maltreatedchildren's association of affective stimuli with traumatic experiences and memoriesselectively alters the meaning of emotions for these children. More generally, the role ofexperience and learning as a component of emotional development is emphasized.

Posttraumatic stress disorder is thepathological replay of emotional memory formed in response to painful, life-threatening, orhorrifying events. In contrast, depression is often precipitated by more social context-relatedstressors. New data suggest that different types of life experiences can differentially impactbiochemistry, physiology, anatomy, and behavior at the level of changes in gene expression.Repeated separation of neonatal rat pups from their mother results in many long-lastingalterations in biology and behavior paralleling that in depression, including hypercortisolism.The role of the amygdala in modulating emotional memory is highlighted, as well as some of itsunique properties such as metaplasticity (i.e., the differential direction of long-term adaptation,either potentiation or depression) in response to the same input as a function of the prior historyof stimulation. The implications of these emerging data on the physiological and molecularmechanisms underlying emotional memory emphasize the particular importance of preventionand early intervention.

This articlereviews memory-related impairments in trauma survivors with posttraumatic stress disorder andtheir possible association to neuroendocrine alterations seen in this disorder. The neuroendocrineprofile in PTSD first described in chronically ill combat veterans is characterized by lower basalcortisol levels, higher glucocorticoid receptor number, enhanced sensitivity to exogenoussteroids, and increased variation in basal cortisol levels over the diurnal cycle. Thegeneralizability and time course of these neuroendocrine alterations are explored in longitudinalstudies and studies in other traumatized populations. These studies suggest that at least someaspects of this neuroendocrine profile can also be seen in other populations, including women,children, and victims of childhood trauma. Additionally, the alterations may be present early inthe course of illness, perhaps even in the immediate aftermath of trauma, and may continue to bemanifest in elderly trauma survivors. The mechanisms by which these neuroendocrine alterationsmay influence the formation and processing of traumatic memories are discussed.

Studies in animals showing hippocampal atrophy and associated memorydeficits in stress and aging have implications for stress and aging in humans. Clinical studies intraumatized human populations with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have replicatedstudies in animals, showing reduction in volume of the hippocampus measured with magneticresonance imaging and associated memory deficits. Trauma at different stages of development(early childhood abuse versus trauma in later life due to combat) may influence the nature ofmemory deficits and hippocampal atrophy. Studies in aging human subjects are consistent withanimal studies, although future research is needed in this area. The similarities betweenbiological findings related to cortisol and the hippocampus in stress and aging in both animal andhuman studies raises the question of whether PTSD can be seen as a form of accelerated aging.Evidence that stress affects the hippocampus and the capacity for learning has broad implicationsfor public health policy, underlying the need for additional resources in this important area and areexamination of our understanding of factors influencing academic achievement.