"This will be a pretty traumatic and daunting task for us as a department.
Note, this is not the same as simple distraction, since other types of tasks such as verbal tasks during traumatic films are predicted (and have been shown) to lead to increased flashbacks [23], [24].
In her attempts to reconstruct what happened, her only clues are a few odd, repetitive habits she has acquired, which seem to be traumatic residue from the tasks imposed on her by the Thief, and an uncanny involvement with Jeff (played by Carruth), a man she meets on a commuter train who seems to have gone through a similar ordeal.
Eleven participants with traumatic brain injury performed tasks in three areas of communication: production (interview situation), comprehension (direct requests, conventional indirect requests, and hints), and metapragmatic knowledge.
Support for this idea comes from a behavioural study by Nico and colleagues [43] who performed a left/right hand judgement task with 16 traumatic amputees and three individuals born without a limb.
It can be hypothesized that anxiety disorders are more related to coping with external tasks and problems (traumatic exposures, stressful work conditions) whereas affective disorders may be related to more personal and interpersonal issues such as feelings of worthlessness and meaningfulness.
For example, performing visuospatial tasks while viewing traumatic footage has been found to reduce analogue flashback frequency compared to a no manipulation (control) condition where participants simply view the footage, while recognition memory remains equal across both groups (e.g., Holmes et al., 2004).
Thus, by selectively interfering with visual sensory-perceptual processing of the traumatic film via visuospatially demanding cognitive tasks, subsequent analog flashbacks are reduced.
