Empirical Article
Credibility and Event Frequency: Assessing the Credibility of Adults Who Recall a Repeated Event Using Reality Monitoring

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2021.01.002Get rights and content

Evaluators are often sceptical about the veracity of allegations for repeated events such as domestic violence. However, previous research has not examined the effect of event repetition upon verbal cues to deception using an adult sample. We conducted two experiments investigating the effect of event frequency upon adults’ Reality Monitoring scores. In Experiment 1, truth-tellers experienced a single or repeated event, and a third group fabricated the event on a single occasion. In Experiment 2, participants observed or fabricated a domestic violence video on one or multiple occasions. All interview responses were coded using Reality Monitoring. In both experiments, Reality Monitoring criteria reliably classified single-event speakers, but not repeated-events speakers. There were also some differences in individual Reality Monitoring criteria as a function of event-type. Although future research is needed, Reality Monitoring does not appear to be a valid tool to assess the credibility of repeated-event speakers.

Section snippets

Experiment 1

Consistent with Reality Monitoring literature, it was predicted that relative to event-fabricators single-event truth-tellers would report more Reality Monitoring details, except for cognitive operations, and that Reality Monitoring would effectively discriminate veracity amongst single-event participants and fabricators. Conversely, we expected repeated-event participants to rely upon their general representation of the event, and report fewer details about a specific episode. Thus, we

Experiment 2

In Experiment 2, participants observed or imagined a video of domestic violence, on one or multiple occasions. In Experiment 1, Reality Monitoring could not discriminate repeated-event truth-tellers and liars who had fabricated the event once. Because repeated imagination can facilitate the generation of detail-rich accounts, we expected Reality Monitoring criteria to classify veracity amongst repeated-event speakers in Experiment 2, but in the opposite direction predicted by Reality Monitoring

General Discussion

We conducted two experiments examining the effect of event frequency upon adults’ Reality Monitoring scores. In both experiments, Reality Monitoring reliably classified single-event truth-tellers and liars but not repeated-event truth-tellers and liars. These results suggest that repeated experience negatively affects the presence of sensory and contextual details in one's account. When individuals experience an event that primarily consists of details that differ predictably across episodes,

Author Contributions

The experiments reported here were conducted by S.D. for her doctoral dissertation, under the supervision of H.P.. S.D. conceptualised the research questions and experimental design, with input from H.P.. S.D. created the research materials which were reviewed by H.P.. S.D. managed the data collection process and analysed the data. H.P. consulted and provided feedback on the statistical analyses and data presentation. S.D. wrote the primary manuscript drafts and made major contributions to

Conflict of Interest

The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

References (46)

  • J. Hudson et al.

    Repeated encounters of a similar kind: Effects of familiarity on children's autobiographic memory

    Cognitive Development

    (1986)
  • G. Nahari

    Reality Monitoring in the forensic context: Digging deeper into the speech of liars

    Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition

    (2018)
  • M.L. Alonso-Quecuty

    Deception detection and reality monitoring: A new answer to an old question

  • I. Blandon-Gitlin et al.

    Detecting deception in children: An experimental study of the effect of event familiarity on CBCA ratings

    Law and Human Behavior

    (2005)
  • S.P. Brubacher et al.

    How do interviewers and children discuss individual occurrences of alleged repeated abuse in forensic interviews?

    Applied Cognitive Psychology

    (2013)
  • S.P. Brubacher et al.

    Effects of practicing episodic versus scripted recall on children’s subsequent narratives of a repeated event

    Psychology, Public Policy, and Law

    (2011)
  • S.P. Brubacher et al.

    Retrieval of episodic versus generic information: Does the order of recall affect the amount and accuracy of details reported by children about repeated events?

    Developmental Psychology

    (2012)
  • K. Colwell et al.

    Assessment criteria indicative of deception (ACID): An integrated system of investigative interviewing and detecting deception

    Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling

    (2007)
  • D.A. Connolly et al.

    Discriminating veracity between children's reports of single, repeated, and fabricated events: A critical analysis of criteria-based content analysis

    American Journal of Forensic Psychology

    (2015)
  • D.A. Connolly et al.

    The influence of suggestions on children’s reports of a unique experience versus an instance of a repeated experience

    Applied Cognitive Psychology

    (2001)
  • D.A. Connolly et al.

    Perceptions and predictors of children's credibility of a unique event and an instance of a repeated event

    Law and Human Behavior

    (2008)
  • M.C. Danby et al.

    The effects of episode similarity on children's reports of a repeated event

    Memory

    (2019)
  • S.L. Deck et al.

    Adults also have difficulty recalling one instance of a repeated event

    Applied Cognitive Psychology

    (2020)
  • S.L. Deck et al.

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

    Applied Cognitive Psychology

    (2020)
  • N. Dilevski et al.

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

    Psychology, Public Policy, and Law

    (2020)
  • S. Elntib et al.

    The role of account length in detecting deception in written and orally produced autobiographical accounts using reality monitoring

    Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling

    (2015)
  • M. Garry et al.

    Imagination inflation: Imagining a childhood event inflates confidence that it occurred

    Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

    (1996)
  • P.A. Granhag et al.

    Children recalling an event repeatedly: Effects on RM and CBCA scores

    Legal and Criminological Psychology

    (2006)
  • J.A. Hudson et al.

    Scripts and episodes: The development of event memory

    Applied Cognitive Psychology

    (1992)
  • M.K. Johnson et al.

    Reality monitoring

    Psychological Review

    (1981)
  • M.R. Leippe et al.

    Reactions to child (versus adult) eyewitnesses: The influence of jurors’ preconceptions and witness behavior

    Law and Human Behavior

    (1989)
  • J. Masip et al.

    The detection of deception with the reality monitoring approach: A review of the empirical evidence

    Psychology, Crime & Law

    (2005)
  • A. Melville et al.

    As everybody knows-countering myths of gender bias in family law

    Griffith Law Review

    (2001)
  • Cited by (0)

    View full text