ABSTRACT

This pre-registered study examined the impact of different retention intervals on remembering each instance of an emotionally stressful, repeated event. Eighty-nine adult female participants imagined being a victim of four similar domestic violence instances over a four-week period. Participants then completed recall and recognition memory questions about each instance either immediately, one-week, or three-weeks after the final instance. Overall, the findings showed that memory performance was often most accurate for the first and last instance compared to the middle instances. That is, participants reported more correct information, made fewer memory errors, and had better quality memory reports for the first and last instances compared to the middle instances. However, following a short delay (i.e., no delay and one-week), participants reported more correct information and were better at discriminating between correct and false details for the last instance relative to the others instances, while at a longer delay (i.e., three-weeks), more correct information was recalled for the first instance compared to other instances (there was no effect for memory discrimination). These findings suggest that memory for instances of a repeated event can depend on the position of an instance, and under some circumstances, the retention interval.

摘要

这项预先注册的研究检查了不同的保留间隔对记住情绪紧张、重复事件的每个实例的影响。八十九名成年女性参与者想象自己在四个星期内成为四次类似家庭暴力事件的受害者。然后，参与者在最终实例后立即、一周或三周完成关于每个实例的回忆和识别记忆问题。总体而言，研究结果表明，与中间实例相比，第一个和最后一个实例的内存性能通常最准确。也就是说，与中间实例相比，参与者报告了更多正确的信息，减少了记忆错误，并且第一次和最后一次实例的记忆报告质量更高。然而，经过短暂的延迟（即没有延迟和一周），与其他实例相比，参与者报告了更多正确的信息，并且在最后一个实例的正确和错误细节之间进行了更好的区分，而在更长的延迟（即三周）中，与其他实例相比，第一个实例回忆了更多的正确信息实例（对记忆歧视没有影响）。这些发现表明，对重复事件实例的记忆可能取决于实例的位置，在某些情况下，还取决于保留间隔。