Factors Affecting Two Types of Memory Specificity: Particularization of Episodes and Details

Rebecca M Willén; Pär Anders Granhag; Leif A Strömwall

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0166469

Factors Affecting Two Types of Memory Specificity: Particularization of Episodes and Details

PLoS One. 2016 Nov 16;11(11):e0166469. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0166469. eCollection 2016.

Authors

Rebecca M Willén¹, Pär Anders Granhag^{2

3}, Leif A Strömwall²

Affiliations

¹ IGDORE, The Globally Distributed Institute for Open Research and Education.
² Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
³ Norwegian Police University College, Oslo, Norway.

Abstract

Memory for repeated events is relevant to legal investigations about repeated occurrences. We investigated how two measures of specificity (number of events referred to and amount of detail reported about the events) were influenced by interviewees' age, number of experienced events, interviewer, perceived unpleasantness, and memory rehearsal. Transcribed narratives consisting of over 40.000 utterances from 95 dental patients, and the corresponding dental records, were studied. Amount of detail was measured by categorizing the utterances as generic, specific, or specific-extended. We found that the two measures were affected differently by all five factors. For instance, number of experienced events positively influenced number of referred events but had no effect on amount of detail provided about the events. We make suggestions for future research and encourage reanalysis of the present data set and reuse of the material.

MeSH terms

Adult
Age Factors
Female
Humans
Interviews as Topic
Male
Memory*
Regression Analysis

Grants and funding

This research was financed by The Swedish Crime Victim and Support Authority (Grant No 252107824). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.