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Abstract
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing can reduce ratings of the vividness
and emotionality of unpleasant memories-hence it is commonly used to treat posttraumatic
stress disorder. The present experiments compared three accounts of how eye movements
produce these benefits. Participants rated unpleasant autobiographical memories before
and after eye movements or an eyes stationary control condition. In Experiment 1,
eye movements produced benefits only when memories were held in mind during the movements,
and eye movements increased arousal, contrary to an investigatory-reflex account.
In Experiment 2, horizontal and vertical eye movements produced equivalent benefits,
contrary to an interhemispheric-communication account. In Experiment 3, two other
distractor tasks (auditory shadowing, drawing) produced benefits that were negatively
correlated with working-memory capacity. These findings support a working-memory account
of the eye movement benefits in which the central executive is taxed when a person
performs a distractor task while attempting to hold a memory in mind.