Patients with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) frequently report episodes of interidentity amnesia,
that is amnesia for events experienced by other identities. The goal of the present experiment was to test the
implicit transfer of trauma-related information between identities in DID. We hypothesized that whereas
declarative information may transfer from one identity to another, the emotional connotation of the
memory may be dissociated, especially in the case of negative, trauma-related emotional valence. An
evaluative conditioning procedure was combined with an affective priming procedure, both performed by
different identities. In the evaluative conditioning procedure, previously neutral stimuli come to refer to a
negative or positive connotation. The affective priming procedure was used to test the transfer of this
acquired valence to an identity reporting interidentity amnesia. Results indicated activation of stimulus
valence in the affective priming task, that is transfer of emotional material between identities.
r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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