Do memories of traumatic events in childhood fade when children encounter similar but less stressful events? That's the conclusion Carl Weems, a psychology professor at the University of New Orleans, reached in a new paper published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

In the study, Weems and his colleagues examined New Orleans schoolchildren who lived through Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Gustav. The latter made landfall on Aug. 31, 2008, three years after Katrina, and prompted the evacuation of three million people from the region.

The researchers found that those children with positive experiences of Gustav showed a decrease in the number of traumatic Katrina memories they reported experiencing. This theory, known as reconsolidation, had never been tested outside the lab, according to a UNO spokesman.

"This is a fairly substantial first-of-its-kind finding," Weems said in a statement. The research, he added, suggests that experiencing similar events in a less stressful way allows our mind to "re-interpret the past in a more positive light."

To read an abstract of the paper, visit the American Psychological Association's website.