Investigating the effects of imagery rescripting on emotional memory: A series of analogue studies

Imagery rescripting (IR) is a promising treatment for a variety of disorders, but its working mechanisms remain largely unknown. To elucidate the associative and evaluative learning processes underlying IR, we exposed participants to an aversive film clip followed by an instructed fear-conditioning procedure. The acquired fear memory was subsequently manipulated by either rescripting- (IR) or exposure-based (imaginal exposure; IE) interventions and their effects were examined on subjective and psychophysiological fear responses in three successive studies. Though the interpretation of the results was challenged with respect to the employed analogue IR intervention (Exp 1) and unexpected findings in the control condition (Exp 3), the present results establish preliminary evidence for the hypothesis that IR produces differential effects on fear responding when compared to IE. For example, in line with stimulus devaluation theory, IR effectively reduced subjective distress to the conditioned stimulus (Exp 2). Also, IR resulted in decreased physiological fear responses after fear reinstatement (Exp 3). The findings advance our general understanding of the processes involved in IR and they tentatively indicate that rescripting- and exposure-based treatments may work through different mechanisms. Moreover, this line of research demonstrates the challenges encountered when working with analogue models to test mechanisms of therapeutic change.