Memory Accuracy and Subjective Forgetting in Adults who Experienced Child Maltreatment

• In Event: Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Topic - Attention, Learning, Memory

Abstract

A professor heard that his nephew was about to attend summer camp. The professor suddenly remembered experiencing sexual abuse at that camp when he attended as a young boy. Can his recovered memory be believed?

Adults’ ability to provide accurate statements is particularly contentious when the adults claim to have forgotten and then recovered memories about child maltreatment. The nature of such recovered memories remains hotly debated in psychological and legal circles (Otgaar et al., 2019). The debate often pits the science of memory and its development against clinical theory, and against laws extending the statute of limitations for child abuse cases. However, few studies to date have directly investigated whether adults who report subjective forgetting (i.e., self-report of temporary forgetting of traumatic experiences) evince impairments in objective memory (i.e., memory accuracy as evaluated against objective documentation) for maltreatment-related events (Ghetti et al., 2006). The present study examined: a) relations between adults’ subjective forgetting and their objective memory for documented child maltreatment and maltreatment investigations, and b) predictors of subjective forgetting for maltreatment experiences.

In a longitudinal study, adults were interviewed about documented child maltreatment evaluations and the maltreatment itself, experienced 20 years prior. At Time 1 (1995-1997), children (M = 8.09 years, range = 3-16 years) were referred to a forensic unit for assessment of possible child maltreatment. At Time 2 (2015-2017), 20 years later, we followed up 119 Time 1 participants and obtained memory measures about the Time 1 forensic unit experiences (a medical examination and clinical interview), and about the child maltreatment suffered. Demographic and individual difference information (e.g., trauma symptoms) was also collected.
Adults who reported more subjective forgetting of child sexual abuse were more accurate in remembering maltreatment evaluations experienced two decades prior, but only for information that was central to the abuse incidents. For example, a 3 (Subjective Forgetting: disclosure with forgetting, disclosure without forgetting, and no disclosure) x 2 (Centrality: central, peripheral) mixed ANCOVA was conducted, with subjective forgetting as a between-subject factor, centrality as a within-subject factor, and Time 1 age as a covariate. Proportion correct responses to Time 2 closed-ended questions served as the dependent measure. A significant Subjective Forgetting x Centrality interaction emerged, F(2,93) = 3.438, ηp2 = .069, p = .036 (Figure 1). Adults who at Time 2 disclosed child sexual abuse with subjective forgetting were significantly more accurate than the other two groups for central, ps ≤ .027, but not peripheral, ps ≥ .067, information. Results for subjective memory and objective accuracy about maltreatment itself followed a similar course. Moreover, adults who at Time 1 were older demonstrated significantly higher accuracy at Time 2, F(1,93) = 7.416, ηp2 = .074, p = .008. Reported forgetting was associated with higher trauma symptom scores, B = .084, OR = 1.088, p < .001.

This study indicates that reported loss of memory (i.e., subjective forgetting) of maltreatment is not associated with inaccurate memory for maltreatment and maltreatment-related information. Implications for memory theory, developmental psychology, and the legal system will be discussed.

Authors

• Yuerui Wu, University of California - Davis
  Presenting Author

• Deborah Goldfarb, University of California, Davis
  Non-Presenting Author

• Yan Wang, University of California - Davis
  Non-Presenting Author

• Daisy E. Vidales, University of California - Davis
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lily Brown, University of California - Davis
  Non-Presenting Author

• Mitchell L. Eisen, California State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Gail S. Goodman, University of California, Davis
  Non-Presenting Author