Investigating the effect of emotional stress on adult memory for single and repeated events.

Abstract

Victims of repeated incidents of abuse are often required to report incident-specific information about particular instances of the abuse. In the current study, we explored adults’ capability of such a task by examining the difference in memory for single versus repeated events that were either stressful or nonstressful. One hundred and twenty-two female participants engaged in either a single event or four highly similar events over a 4-week period. During each event, participants read and imagined themselves partaking in a hypothetical relationship scenario that consisted of either a domestic violence encounter (stressful group) or a closely matched neutral relationship encounter (nonstressful group). One week after the final scenario, participants completed recall and recognition questions about the target scenario. The findings revealed that although emotional stress had an enhancing effect on long-term memory, it did not interact with event frequency (single, repeated) for most memory measures. However, regardless of emotional stress, repeated-event participants struggled to report particular details about the target scenario, and showed greater source monitoring issues than single-event participants. Conversely, when a broader definition of memory accuracy was used that encompassed all experienced details, repeated and single event groups performed similarly. Together, the findings indicate that the testimonies of adult female complainants of repeated abuse will mostly likely consist of details that occurred across multiple experienced events, and that this will be similar regardless of whether emotional stress was or was not experienced during the event(s). The findings are discussed in terms of theoretical and practical implications.

Liars are perceived as more credible than truth‐tellers who recall a repeated event

“…Adapting the methodological paradigm which is typically used in the child literature to an adult sample, Deck and Paterson (2019) found that adults who experienced a single event recalled significantly more correct details from the target session than adults who had experienced a repeated event. This finding that adults recalling a single event also report more correct details from the target session than those recalling a repeated event has been found in multiple experiments (Dilevski, Paterson, & van Golde, 2019; Theunissen et al, 2017). The tendency for both children and adults who recall a repeated event to have lower recall accuracy for variable details seems to be attributable to the fact that repeated‐event participants recall variable options which were experienced during one episode of the repeated event, but not the target episode (Connolly & Price, 2006; Deck & Paterson, 2019; Powell, Roberts, Ceci, & Hembrooke, 1999).…”

Adults also have difficulty recalling one instance of a repeated event

“…When accuracy was broadly defined as experienced details however, single and repeated‐event participants were equivalent in accuracy. This finding contributes to a small body of research which shows that child (Connolly, Gordon, Woiwod, & Price, 2016) and adult (Dilevski et al, 2020) repeated‐event witnesses do not report fewer correct details when accuracy is broadly defined. Despite the consistency of this finding across developmental levels, there are different legal expectations for children and adults.…”

“…A common methodological approach used to investigate adult repeated‐event memory in recent years has been an adaptation of the eyewitness paradigm, in which participants view one or multiple films (Theunissen et al, 2017; van Golde et al, 2017), or read a single or multiple accounts of a victim's perspective of abuse (Dilevski et al, 2020). Consistent with the results of the current experiment, these experiments have found that repeated‐event participants are less accurate when recalling details from the target event than single‐event participants.…”

“…A primary difference between these two methodologies is the emotional valence of the stimuli. Although the effect of stress upon single and repeated‐event memory is unclear (Dilevski et al, 2020), the eyewitness paradigm enables stressful stimuli to be employed more easily, as an analogue for repeated forensic events (although see Price & Connolly, 2007, for an example of stressful repeated‐event stimuli used within the child paradigm).…”

“…Experiments that have investigated adult repeated‐event memory have used different methodological approaches to the child research. For example, although most child research has employed experienced play sessions as memory stimuli, the stimuli used in adult research has included films (Theunissen, Meyer, Memon, & Weinsheimer, 2017; van Golde, Paterson, Cullen, & Marsh, 2017), written accounts of abuse (Dilevski, Paterson, & van Golde, 2020), word lists (Rubínová, Blank, Ost, & Fitzgerald, 2020), and autobiographical events (Means & Loftus, 1991; Rivard, Fisher, Robertson, & Hirn Mueller, 2014).…”