
Self-Control Saps Memory, Study Says - nopinsight
https://today.duke.edu/2015/08/meminhibit
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flashman
I wonder if you could use this principle to treat people who've just suffered
a traumatic experience? Give them a task that requires inhibitory control, and
perhaps they won't commit as much of the traumatic experience to memory?

On the other hand, if the mechanism worked this way you'd expect the study
participants to have worse recall on _all_ faces, not just the ones with the
inhibited responses.

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tubbzor
Your comment made me think of a related but different study I read related to
trauma reduction soon after a traumatic experience by using a game (like
Tetris). If you are interested:
[http://pss.sagepub.com/content/26/8/1201](http://pss.sagepub.com/content/26/8/1201)

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percept
This could be another evolutionary survival mechanism, a "short circuit" of
sorts for life-saving responses.

("No, I didn't get a good look at the tiger, I was too busy busting my ass
running back to the cave.")

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dang
Url changed from [http://www.sciencealert.com/researchers-show-how-self-
contro...](http://www.sciencealert.com/researchers-show-how-self-control-can-
drain-your-memory-banks), which points to this.

