The Effects of Communicative Source and Dynamics on the Maintenance and Accessibility of Longer‐term Memories: Applications to Sexual Abuse and Its Public Disclosure

Abstract

Recent public testimony concerning sexual abuse on the part of celebrities raises the question of what happens to memories when they enter the public domain. The present paper reviews research on the effects of communication on memory and examines how the context of this communication affects its influence on memory, both in the short and long term. Specifically, we discuss how communication with the self, a small group, and the larger public affects the content and availability of different elements of both emotional and more mundane memories, in the short term and in the long term. Evidence suggests that, although forgetting is rapid in the first few years, it then levels off. Although this pattern would suggest that the effects conversational influences have on memory may be limited to the first few years, the present paper argues that the pattern will vary as the source changes.

Memory at the Sharp End: The Costs of Remembering With Others in Forensic Contexts

“…The costs of unfettered conversational remembering in forensic contexts can be significant. Further, individual and group retellings and conversations—both emotional and factual—are increasingly likely in the social media era, both immediately and over time (see Fagin, Cyr, & Hirst, ). This trend is increasingly problematic for investigators as witnesses discuss their experiences not only with co‐witnesses at the scene but also in news and social media outlets—often before having been formally interviewed by the police.…”

Contextualizing Autobiographical Remembering: An Expanded View of Memory

“…Remembering in collaboration with others does not simply enhance memory, it can also render events as inaccessible. As Fagin et al (2015) show, drawing upon the Social Shared Retrieval-Induced Forgetting (SS-RIF) model, conversations with others can make episodic memories that are unrelated to the discussion in hand less accessible, with particular pronounced effects in the shorter term. If we situate this in everyday contexts, such as those that occur between adults and children, within families and in personal relationships, we can start to see the accessibility of memory as itself a collaborative accomplishment.…”

The Limitations of Our Knowledge About Social Influences on Memories of Sexual Abuse over the Long Term

“…Are there nonetheless ways in which such memories may be altered, or partly forgotten, as the result of social factors? This is the question addressed by Fagin, Cyr, and Hirst (2015) in their informed and insightful application of the social memory literature to the important question of how memories of sexual abuse may be re-shaped, both over the short-and long-term, by communication with others, as well as with oneself. Their review provides an invaluable primer on the topic.…”