‘Tell me what just happened’: the effect of immediate recall on adult memory for instances of a repeated event

Abstract

ABSTRACT To reduce the memory decay associated with delayed reporting, witnesses are often encouraged to note down their recall immediately after the event. However, research has only investigated the benefits of immediate recall for single events; no research has explored whether immediate recall can improve memory for repeated events. Therefore, this research examined the effect of immediate recall on adult memory for a repeated event. In Experiment 1 (N = 42), participants watched four workplace bullying videos. After each video, the experimental group immediately recalled what occurred during the bullying instance, while the control group did not. One-week after the final video, all participants completed a final recall report about each video in the series. In Experiment 2 (N = 46), the same design and procedure were followed as Experiment 1, except prior to completing their final recall reports, all participants received correct and misleading post-event information about the third instance. The findings revealed that immediate recall enhanced memory accuracy across instances, but did not impact recall of source memory errors nor misinformation acceptance. The findings suggest that it may be beneficial for victims/witnesses of repeated offences, such as domestic abuse, to document their memories soon after experiencing an incident.