Emotional expression and working memory: can expressive writing about an imaginary trauma produce working memory gains?

The effect of emotional disclosure through expressive writing about real traumatic events on available working memory capacity ahs already been established. This study examined whether disclosing emotions generated by writing about a novel imaginative traumatic event would produce similar gains in working memory. Sixty-two first-year university students were randomly assigned to write about a real trauma, an imaginary trauma, or a trival topic (time management). One and one half weeks following the writing condition, no significant effects were found. However, the imaginary trauma and real trauma writing groups did show more similarities with each other than with the control group. The results are discussed in terms of the previous findings of expressive writing on working memory.