School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Memory. 2021 Jan;29(1):98-116. doi: 10.1080/09658211.2020.1860227. Epub 2020 Dec 26.
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.
这项预先注册的研究考察了不同的记忆保持间隔对记住情绪压力重复事件的每个实例的影响。89 名成年女性参与者在四周的时间里想象自己成为四起类似家庭暴力事件的受害者。然后，参与者在最后一次事件发生后立即、一周或三周后完成了关于每个事件的回忆和识别记忆问题。总的来说，研究结果表明，与中间实例相比，记忆表现通常对第一和最后实例最准确。也就是说，与中间实例相比，参与者对第一和最后实例报告了更多正确的信息，记忆错误更少，记忆报告质量更好。然而，在短时间延迟（即无延迟和一周）后，与其他实例相比，参与者对最后一个实例报告了更多的正确信息，并且在区分正确和错误细节方面表现更好，而在较长的延迟（即三周）后，与其他实例相比，参与者对第一个实例的回忆更多（记忆辨别没有影响）。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，并且在某些情况下取决于记忆保持间隔。
