791
Views
14
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Original Articles

Adults’ retractions of childhood sexual abuse allegations: high-stakes and the (in)validation of recollection

Pages 900-909 | Received 23 Mar 2016, Accepted 05 May 2016, Published online: 27 May 2016

References

  • Ashmore, M., & Brown, S. D. (2010). On changing one’s mind twice: The strange credibility of retracting recovered memories. In J. Haaken & P. Reavey (Eds.), Memory matters: Contexts for understanding sexual abuse recollections (pp. 17–40). Hove: Routledge.
  • Bartlett, F. C. (1932). Remembering: A study in experimental and social psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Bass, E., & Davis, L. (1988). The courage to heal: A guide for women survivors of child sexual abuse. New York, NY: Harper & Row.
  • Belli, R. F. (1986). Mechanist and organicist parallels between theories of memory and science. The Journal of Mind and Behavior, 7, 63–86.
  • Blank, H. (2009). Remembering: A theoretical interface between memory and social psychology. Social Psychology, 40, 164–175. doi: 10.1027/1864-9335.40.3.164
  • Blank, H., Walther, E., & Isemann, S. D. (in press). The past is a social construction: Susceptibility to social influence in (mis)remembering. In R. A. Nash & J. Ost (Eds.), False and distorted memories. Hove: Psychology Press.
  • Blume, E. S. (1995). The ownership of truth. The Journal of Psychohistory, 23, 131–140.
  • Davis, J. E. (2005). Victim narratives and victim selves: False memory syndrome and the power of accounts. Social Problems, 52, 529–548. doi: 10.1525/sp.2005.52.4.529
  • Edwards, D., & Middleton, D. (1987). Conversation and remembering: Bartlett revisited. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 1, 77–92. doi: 10.1002/acp.2350010202
  • Edwards, D., Potter, J., & Middleton, D. (1992). Toward a discursive psychology of remembering. The Psychologist, 5, 441–446.
  • Epstein, M. A., & Bottoms, B. L. (1998). Memories of childhood sexual abuse: A survey of young adults. Child Abuse & Neglect, 22, 1217–1238. doi: 10.1016/S0145-2134(98)00099-4
  • Fetkewicz, J., Sharma, V., & Merskey, H. (2000). A note on suicidal deterioration with recovered memory treatment. Journal of Affective Disorders, 58, 155–159. doi: 10.1016/S0165-0327(98)00193-1
  • Garry, M., Manning, C. G., Loftus, E. F., & Sherman, S. J. (1996). Imagination inflation: Imagining a childhood event inflates confidence that it occurred. Psychological Bulletin and Review, 3, 208–214. doi: 10.3758/BF03212420
  • Goldstein, E., & Farmer, K. (1993). True stories of false memories. Boca Raton, FL: Upton Books.
  • Gudjonsson, G. H. (1997). False Memory Syndrome and the Retractors: Methodological and Theoretical issues. Psychological Inquiry, 8, 296–299. doi: 10.1207/s15327965pli0804_3
  • Hardy, F. (2015, January 22). Did an internet predator target an innocent young girl and persuade her to falsely accuse her loving father of sexual abuse? Daily Mail. Retrieved March 16, 2016, from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2920867/Internet-Svengali-persuaded-loving-child-falsely-accuse-father-ABUSE-Claire-claim-tear-family-apart-forever.html.
  • Heaton, J. A., & Wilson, N. L. (1998). Memory, media, and the creation of mass confusion. In S. J. Lynn & K. M. McConkey (Eds.), Truth in memory (pp. 349–371). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
  • Hinde, R. A. (1999). Why gods persist: A scientific approach to religion. London: Routledge.
  • Hyman, I. E. (1999). Creating false autobiographical memories: Why people believe their memory errors. In E. Winograd, R. Fivush, & W. Hirst (Eds.), Ecological approaches to cognition: Essays in honor of Ulric Neisser (pp. 229–252). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  • Kassin, S. M. (1997). False memories turned against the self. Psychological Inquiry, 8, 300–302. doi: 10.1207/s15327965pli0804_4
  • van der Kolk, B. A. (1994). The body keeps the score: Memory and the evolving psychobiology of posttraumatic stress. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 1, 253–265. doi: 10.3109/10673229409017088
  • Larsen, S. F., & Berntsen, D. (2000). Bartlett’s trilogy of memory: Reconstructing the concept of attitude. In A. Saito (Ed.), Bartlett, culture and cognition (pp. 90–114). Guildford: Psychology Press.
  • Lief, H., & Fetkewicz, J. (1995). Retractors of false memories: The evolution of pseudo-memories. The Journal of Psychiatry and Law, 23, 411–436.
  • Lindsay, D. S. (2008). Source monitoring. In H. L. Roediger, III (Ed.), Cognitive psychology of memory. Volume 2 of learning and memory: A comprehensive reference (pp. 325–348). Oxford: Elsevier.
  • Loftus, E. F. (1998). The price of bad memories. Skeptical Inquirer, 22, 23–24.
  • Loftus, E. F., & Ketcham, K. (1991). Witness for the defense: The accused, the eyewitness, and the expert who puts memory on trial. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.
  • Loftus, E. F., & Pickrell, J. E. (1995). The formation of false memories. Psychiatric Annals, 25, 720–725. doi: 10.3928/0048-5713-19951201-07
  • London, K., Bruck, M., Ceci, S., & Shuman, D. (2007). Disclosure of child sexual abuse: A review of the contemporary empirical literature. In M. Pipe, M. Lamb, Y. Orbach, & A. Cederborg (Eds.), Child sexual abuse: Disclosure, delay, and denial (pp. 11–39). London: Erlbaum.
  • Lynn, S. J., Krackow, E., Loftus, E. F., Locke, T. G., & Lilienfeld, S. O. (2015). Constructing the past: Problematic memory recovery techniques in psychotherapy. In S. O. Lilienfeld, S. J. Lynn, & J. M. Lohr (Eds.), Science and pseudoscience in clinical psychology (2nd ed., pp. 210–244). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
  • Lyon, T. D. (2007). False denials: Overcoming methodological biases in abuse disclosure research. In M.-E. Pipe, M. E. Lamb, Y. Orbach, & A.-C. Cederborg (Eds.), Child sexual abuse: Disclosure, delay, and denial (pp. 41–62). New York, NY: Routledge.
  • Malloy, L. C., Lyon, T. D., & Quas, J. A. (2007). Filial Dependency and Recantation of Child Sexual Abuse Allegations. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 46, 162–170. doi: 10.1097/01.chi.0000246067.77953.f7
  • Maran, M. (2010). My lie: A true story of false memory. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
  • Marsh, E. J. (2007). Retelling is not the same as recalling: Implications for memory. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16, 16–20. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8721.2007.00467.x
  • Mazzoni, G., & Kirsch, I. (2002). Autobiographical memories and beliefs: A preliminary metacognitive model. In T. Perfect & B. Schwartz (Eds.), Applied metacognition (pp. 121–145). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Mazzoni, G., Scoboria, A., & Harvey, L. (2010). Non-believed memories. Psychological Science, 21, 1334–1340. doi: 10.1177/0956797610379865
  • McElroy, S. L., & Keck, P. E. (1995). Recovered memory therapy: False memory syndrome and other complications. Psychiatric Annals, 25, 731–735. doi: 10.3928/0048-5713-19951201-09
  • McKay, R. T., & Dennett, D. C. (2009). The evolution of misbelief. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 32, 493–561. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X09990975
  • McNally, R. J. (2003). Remembering trauma. Harvard, MA: Harvard University Press.
  • McNally, R. J., & Geraerts, E. (2009). A new solution to the recovered memory debate. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 4, 126–134. doi: 10.1111/j.1745-6924.2009.01112.x
  • Nash, R. A., & Takarangi, M. K. T. (2011). Reconstructing alcohol-induced memory blackouts. Memory, 19, 566–573. doi: 10.1080/09658211.2011.590508
  • Nash, R. A., Wheeler, R. L., & Hope, L. (2015). On the persuadability of memory: Is changing people’s memories no more than changing their minds? British Journal of Psychology, 106, 308–326. doi: 10.1111/bjop.12074
  • Nelson, E. L., & Simpson, P. (1994). First glimpse: An initial examination of subjects who have rejected their recovered visualizations as false memories. Issues in Child Abuse Accusations, 6, 123–133.
  • Newman, E. J., & Lindsay, D. S. (2009). False memories: What the hell are they for? Applied Cognitive Psychology, 23, 1105–1121. doi: 10.1002/acp.1613
  • Ost, J. (2000). Recovering memories: Convergent approaches toward an understanding of the false memory debate (Unpublished doctoral thesis). University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK.
  • Ost, J. (2003). Seeking the middle ground in the ‘memory wars’. British Journal of Psychology, 94, 125–139. doi: 10.1348/000712603762842156
  • Ost, J., & Costall, A. (2002). Misremembering Bartlett: A study in serial reproduction. British Journal of Psychology, 93, 243–255. doi: 10.1348/000712602162562
  • Ost, J., Costall, A., & Bull, R. (2001). False confessions and false memories? A model for understanding retractors’ experiences? The Journal of Forensic Psychiatry, 12, 551–581. doi: 10.1080/09585180127393
  • Ost, J., Costall, A., & Bull, R. (2002). A perfect symmetry? A study of retractors’ experiences of making and then repudiating claims of early sexual abuse. Psychology, Crime & Law, 8, 155–181. doi: 10.1080/10683160208415004
  • Ost, J., & Nunkoosing, K. (2010). Reconstructing Bartlett and revisiting the ‘false memory’ controversy. In J. Haaken & P. Reavey (Eds.), Memory matters: Understanding contexts for recollecting child sexual abuse (pp. 41–62). Hove: Routledge.
  • Otgaar, H., Howe, M. L., Smeets, T., & Wang, J. (in press). Denial-induced forgetting: False denials undermine memory, but external denials undermine belief. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition.
  • Otgaar, H., Scoboria, A., & Smeets, T. (2013). Experimentally evoking nonbelieved memories for childhood events. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 39, 717–730.
  • Pendergrast, M. (1996). Victims of memory: Incest accusations and shattered lives (2nd ed.). Hinesburg, VT: Upper Access.
  • Pezdek, K., Blandon-Gitlin, I., Lam, S., Hart, R. E., & Schooler, J. (2006). Is knowing believing? The role of event plausibility and background knowledge in planting false beliefs about the personal past. Memory & Cognition, 34, 1628–1635. doi: 10.3758/BF03195925
  • Read, J. D., & Lindsay, D. S. (1997). Recollections of trauma: Scientific evidence and clinical practice. New York, NY: Plenum Press.
  • de Rivera, J. (1997). The construction of false memory syndrome: The experience of retractors. Psychological Inquiry, 8, 271–292. doi: 10.1207/s15327965pli0804_1
  • de Rivera, J. (1998). Relinquishing believed-in imaginings: Narratives of individuals who have repudiated false accusations. In J. de Rivera & T. R. Sarbin (Eds.), Believed-in imaginings: The narrative construction of reality (pp. 169–188). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
  • de Rivera, J. (2000). Understanding persons who repudiate memories recovered in therapy. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 31, 378–386. doi: 10.1037/0735-7028.31.4.378
  • de Rivera, J., & Sarbin, T. R. (1998). Believed-in imaginings: The narrative construction of reality. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
  • Rubin, D. C., & Boals, A. (2010). People who expect to enter psychotherapy are prone to believing that they have forgotten memories of childhood trauma and abuse. Memory, 18, 556–562. doi: 10.1080/09658211.2010.490787
  • Schacter, D. L., Norman, K. A., & Koutstaal, W. (1997). The recovered memories debate: A cognitive neuroscience perspective. In M. A. Conway (Ed.), Recovered memories and false memories (pp. 63–99). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Schooler, J. W., Bendiksen, M., & Ambadar, Z. (1997). Taking the middle line: Can we accommodate both fabricated and recovered memories of sexual abuse? In M. A. Conway (Ed.), Recovered memories and false memories (pp. 251–292). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Scoboria, A., Boucher, C., & Mazzoni, G. (2015). Reasons for withdrawing belief in vivid autobiographical memories. Memory, 23, 545–562. doi: 10.1080/09658211.2014.910530
  • Scoboria, A., Mazzoni, G., & Boucher, C. (in press). Nonbelieved memories: A review of findings and theoretical implications. In R. A. Nash & J. Ost (Eds.), False and distorted memories. Hove: Psychology Press.
  • Scoboria, A., Mazzoni, G., Kirsch, I., & Relyea, M. (2004). Plausibility and belief in autobiographical memory. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 18, 791–807. doi: 10.1002/acp.1062
  • Singer, J. (1997). How recovered memory debates reduce the richness of human identity. Psychological Inquiry, 8, 325–329. doi: 10.1207/s15327965pli0804_10
  • Wade, K. A., & Garry, M. (2005). Strategies for verifying false autobiographical memories. American Journal of Psychology, 118, 587–602.
  • Wade, K. A., Nash, R. A., & Garry, M. (2014). People consider reliability and cost when verifying their autobiographical memories. Acta Psychologica, 146, 28–34. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2013.12.001
  • Wilson, A. E., & Ross, M. (2003). The identity function of autobiographical memory: Time is on our side. Memory, 11, 137–149. doi: 10.1080/741938210
  • Woodiwiss, J. (2010). ‘Alternative memories’ and the construction of a sexual abuse narrative. In J. Haaken & P. Reavey (Eds.), Memory matters: Understanding contexts for recollecting child sexual abuse (pp. 105–127). London: Routledge.

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.