Procedural memory in dissociative identity disorder: when can inter-identity amnesia be truly established?
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Updated: Aug 17, 2026

Use of a Psychophysiological Script-driven Imagery Experiment to Study Trauma-related Dissociation in Borderline Personality Disorder
Published on: March 8, 2018
Rafaële J C Huntjens1, Albert Postma, Liesbeth Woertman
1Department of Clinical Psychology, Research Institute for Psychology and Health, Faculty of Social Sciences, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80.140, 3508 TC, Utrecht, The Netherlands. R.Huntjens@fss.uu.nl
Abstract:
In a serial reaction time task, procedural memory was examined in Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). Thirty-one DID patients were tested for inter-identity transfer of procedural learning and their memory performance was compared with 25 normal controls and 25 controls instructed to simulate DID. Results of patients seemed to indicate a pattern of inter-identity amnesia. Simulators, however, were able to mimic a pattern of inter-identity amnesia, rendering the results of patients impossible to interpret as either a pattern of amnesia or a pattern of simulation. It is argued that studies not including DID-simulators or simulation-free memory tasks, should not be taken as evidence for (or against) amnesia in DID.
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