1. How to measure recollections of repeated events?
Rebecca Willén, Pär anders granhag, leif strömwall, & ron fisher
SARMAC XI Victoria, BC, Canada,
24-27 June 2015

2. Memory for repeated events
SARMAC XI Victoria, BC, Canada, June 2015
Memory for repeated events
Generic and difficult to particularize (Neisser, 1981; Powell, Roberts, & Guadagno, 2007; Roberts & Powell, 2001)
Important in applied settings
Criminal investigations (e.g., Powell et al., 2007)
Refugee status determination (UNHCR, 2013)
Detainee interviews (Leins, Fisher, Pludwinski, Rivard,
& Robertson, 2014)
Inquiries about medical background (Mean & Loftus, 1989)

3. Research on memory for repeated events
SARMAC XI Victoria, BC, Canada , June 2015
Research on memory for repeated events
Research questions
What characterizes memory for repeated events? (e.g., Neisser, 1981)
How many events do people recall? (e.g., Means & Loftus, 1989)
How much detail do people recall? (e.g., Leins et al., 2014)
How can we facilitate recollection? (e.g., Brubacher, Powell, & Roberts, 2014)
How do practioners interview about repeated events? (e.g., Brubacher, Malloy, Lamb, & Roberts, 2013)
Laboratory studies
(Quasi-)Experiments with controlled events (e.g., Powell & Thomson, 2003)
Quasi-experiments with partly controlled events (e.g., Cohen & Java, 1995; Thompson & Mingay, 1991)
Quasi-experiments with not controlled events (e.g., Means & Loftus, 1989)
Field studies
Analyses of real-life interviews and narratives (e.g., Brubacher et al., 2013)

4. Measures of details What is a detail? And how to count it?
SARMAC XI Victoria, BC, Canada, June 2015
Measures of details
What is a detail? And how to count it?

5. SARMAC XI Victoria, BC, Canada, 24-27 June 2015
Lists of details
Criteria-Based Content Analysis (CBCA; Undeutch, 1982)
Reality Monitoring (RM; Johnson & Raye, 1981)
Aberdeen Report Judgment Scales (ARJS; Sporer, 2004)
Mainly employed in research on deception detection

6. Isolated details Details - repeated events research
SARMAC XI Victoria, BC, Canada, June 2015
Isolated details
Details - forensic interview research
Level of detail
Clarity
Length of statement
Consistency
Omissions
Additions
Critical details
Number of words
Spatial information
Temporal information
Perceptual information
Time of day
Repetitions
Objects
Subjects
Spatial location of subjects or objects
Number of descriptive information units
Descriptions of navigating
Visual details
Obstacles
Before and after the event, during the event, about the perpetrator
Sexual vs. sensitive vs. neutral details
Denials
Allegations
Contextual details
Grammar
etc
Details - repeated events research
Number of events
Omissions
Additions
Critical details
Story grammar
Before and after the event, during the event, about the perpetrator, about the victim, about the witness
Context and background information
Actions
People
Calendar dates
Event duration
Conversations
Settings
Temporal information
Objects
Item-level details vs. instantiation-level details
Fixed vs. variable details
Target details
etc

7. Coding procedures (this slide is partly inspired by Sporer, 2012)
SARMAC XI Victoria, BC, Canada, June 2015
Coding procedures (this slide is partly inspired by Sporer, 2012)
Frequency counts
Binary coding
Likert type scales
Whole account vs. parts of the account
E.g. free recall vs. specific questions

8. SARMAC XI Victoria, BC, Canada, 24-27 June 2015
Important problems
MANY possible codings and analyses – which decisions are made á priori?
The lack of standardization in measures and analyses makes our field very vulnerable to questionable practices (e.g., p-hacking & HARKing)
New coding procedures and materials are constantly created
Waste of resources!
How to compare results across studies?

9. SARMAC XI Victoria, BC, Canada, 24-27 June 2015
Essential changes
Agreement needed on how to measure and analyze ”amount of detail”
Sharing of research materials
Preregister our studies
Make very clear which measures and coding procedures you plan to use, which parts of the statements you plan to analyze, which comparisons you plan to do and what results you expect to find
These changes are needed throughout in forensic interview research – but our field of ”repeated events” can show the way!

10. What do the present authors do except from complaining?
SARMAC XI Victoria, BC, Canada, June 2015
What do the present authors do except from complaining?
Our materials (coding schemes, instructions to coders, etc) is available for free at Open Science Framework (OSF)
Hope to provide a first suggestion of how a standardized measure of ”amount of detail” can look like
Including a protocol for preregistering forensic interview research

11. Email: rebecca.willen@psy.gu.se
Rebecca Willén
Website: clip.org.gu.se