Editorial: Child Sexual Abuse: Empirical Research on Understanding and Helping Victims and Offenders

Non peer reviewe

The acculturation effect and eyewitness memory reports among migrants

Purpose: When people migrate to new cultures, they adapt to their new culture while at the same time retaining the norms of their original culture. The phenomenon whereby migrants adapt to the cultural norms of a host culture has been referred to as acculturation. Using a mock witness paradigm, we examined the acculturation effect in the eyewitness memory reports of sub-Saharan African migrants in Western Europe. Methods: We sampled sub-Saharan African migrants in Western Europe, as well as sub-Saharan Africans living in Africa as a control group (total N = 107). The mock witnesses were shown stimuli scenes of crimes in African and Western European settings and provided free and cued recall reports about what they had seen. Results: Central details were reported more than contextual details by both groups of sub-Saharan Africans. Relative to the control group of sub-Saharan Africans living in Africa, sub-Saharan African migrants in Western Europe provided more correct central details in free recall. The longer migrants had resided in Western Europe, the less collectivistic they become. Migrants also provided more elaborate reports the longer their duration of residence in Western Europe. Conclusion: The findings of the current research suggest the new cultural environment of migrants impact their cultural norms, which may have implications for their eyewitness memory reports

Modeling the connection between selfreported trauma and dissociation in a student sample.

A sample of 109 undergraduate students completed the Dissociative Experiences Scale and self-report measures on absent-mindedness, fantasy proneness, and childhood trauma. As in previous studies, dissociative tendencies were strongly related to absent-mindedness and fantasy proneness. Also, dissociative symptoms were linked to trauma self-reports. Structural equation modeling analyses showed that both the conventional trauma-dissociation model and an alternative dissociation-trauma model provided an adequate fit to our data. Thus, our results demonstrate that cross-sectional and non-clinical studies relying on self-reports of dissociation and trauma should seriously consider the possibility that dissociation, together with its correlates absent-mindedness and fantasy proneness, contribute to trauma self-reports

The accuracy of autobiographical memory: A replication of Barclay & Wellman (1986)

Ten volunteers kept written records of self-selected, daily events for a one-week period. After four months, they were given a surprise recognition test. This test consisted of original memories and several types of foils. In line with previous findings of Barclay and Wellman, it was found that acceptance of foils as one's own memories is a relatively common phenomenon. This suggests that pseudomemories may also occur in the absence of suggestions and repeated interviews and, more generally, that autobiographical memory is intrinsically unreliable

Dissociative experiences, response bias, and fantasy proneness in college students

In two studies, the connection between dissociative experiences as measured by the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) and memory distortions was examined. In the first study, DES scores of female students (N = 42) were not found to be related to reality monitoring failures. There was, however, a significant association between DES and false positive memory failures, suggesting a response bias in participants scoring high on the DES. In the second study, students (N = 70) completed the DES, a measure of fantasy proneness, and the Life Events Inventory (LEI). The LEI lists a large number of discrete events and requires respondents to indicate whether these events have happened to them before the age of 10. A positive connection between DES and LEI was found, such that higher DES scores were accompanied by more positive answers to the LEI. The connection between DES and positive response tendencies to LEI items was evident for both neutral and negative items and was carried by fantasy proneness. Taken together, the data indicate that high DES scores are related to a positive response bias tendency. This may have substantial implications for retrospective studies that attempt t

Using metamemory measures and memory tests to estimate eyewitness free recall performance

Using a mock witness methodology, we investigated the predictive value of metamemory measures and objective memory tests as indicators of eyewitness free recall performance. Participants (n = 208) first completed a metamemory assessment that included assessments of self-rated memory capacity, memory development and use of strategies. In a separate session, participants watched a mock-crime video and provided a free recall account, followed by one out of four independent memory tests (i.e., free recall, cued recall, face recognition and general knowledge). Accuracy, amount of details reported, confidence and over/underconfidence in the eyewitness free recall were the main dependent variables. Results indicated three main findings: (1) subjective assessments of memory capacity were not related to eyewitness free recall performance; (2) although individual confidence and over/underconfidence was somewhat stable across different memory tests, accuracy was less stable; and (3) individuals with higher self-rated memory capacity had a slightly stronger confidence-accuracy relation in free recall. These results are discussed with respect to metamemory assessments and performance stability across memory tests of different domains

Dissociative experiences and interrogative suggestibility in college students

The present study examined whether scores on the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) are related to interrogative suggestibility, as measured by the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale (GSS-1). In addition, an attempt was made to identify factors that may mediate this relationship. The DES and GSS were administered to a sample of 56 female undergraduate students along with self-report measures of cognitive failures and fantasy proneness. DES and cognitive failures were found to be related to total GSS scores. In contrast, fantasy proneness was not linked to total GSS scores. Correcting for the influence of cognitive failures attenuated the correlation between DES and GSS. This suggests that cognitive efficiency is one of the mediating factors operating in the connection between dissociation and interrogative suggestibility

Dissociation and autobiographical memory specifity.

Overgeneral autobiographical memory refers to a relative inability to respond to cue-words with memories for specific events. The present study explored the relation between overgeneral memories and dissociative tendencies. Autobiographical memory performance of college students with high self,reported dissociation was compared to that of students with low dissociation scores. Two different hypotheses were tested. The first assumes that dissociation reflects an avoidant information processing style. If true, the high dissociation group would be expected to display fewer specific memories: than low-dissociative individuals. The second hypothesis builds on the finding that dissociation overlaps with fantasy proneness. To the extent that fantasy proneness implicates good story-telling abilities, one expects high dissociation individuals to display more rather than less specific memories. The results show that autobiographical memory did not differ between high and low dissociation groups, although group differences were found with regard to fantasy proneness