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Adults' ability to particularise an occurrence of a repeated event
Author(s) -
Deck Sarah L.,
Paterson Helen M.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
applied cognitive psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.719
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1099-0720
pISSN - 0888-4080
DOI - 10.1002/acp.3792
Subject(s) - psychology , recall , event (particle physics) , repeated measures design , developmental psychology , social psychology , cognitive psychology , statistics , physics , quantum mechanics , mathematics
Summary Domestic violence typically recurs over time, involving the same victim and perpetrator. When complainants make an allegation about abuse, they are required to particularise the offence and recall details unique to specific occurrences. This experiment investigated adults' ability to particularise an occurrence after experiencing a single or repeated event. Participants watched one or multiple videos of domestic violence and were interviewed about the last or only video they had observed. For repeated‐event participants, some details were present in all videos (fixed), whereas others differed predictably (variable). Repeated‐event participants recalled a significantly lower proportion of correct details about the target video relative to single event participants, although they reported similar proportions of correct experienced details. Repeated‐event participants also reported a significantly higher proportion of correct fixed, relative to correct variable details about the target video. These findings indicate that adults are likely to have difficulty fulfilling the particularisation requirement.