Many people find it hard to believe that recovered memories of childhood abuse turn out to be true, according to a study by University psychology Professor Jennifer Freyd.
Freyd recently presented her research to an annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Seattle. Her research shows that a discrepancy exists between what science and the media portray about recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse.
Freyd said the bias against recovered memories suggests ignorance and confusion about memories of abuse. She added that forgetting sexual or physical abuse is more likely when the perpetrator is a caregiver, such as parent, than when the perpetrator is not a caregiver, such as family friend or a stranger.
“In our opinion, if people are biased against recovered memories, it’s a kind of like a prejudice,” she said. “We suspected it, but we wanted to actually measure people’s beliefs in a way that would let us have more than just a suspicion.”
She added that the research shows memories have the same chance of being true or false, regardless of whether they are continual or recovered.
In the study, 327 undergraduate University students read vignettes describing childhood abuse and rated each on believability of the victim’s memory. The rating system was zero (not at all believable) to 5 (very believable).
An example of a continuous memory vignette that students rated was: “A college friend, David, confides in you that he was forced by his father to have sex with him when he was 9 years old. David tells you that he has always remembered this aspect of his childhood, but he has never told anyone until now.”
The recovered memory version of that was: “A college friend, David, confides in you that he was forced by his father to have sex with him when he was 9 years old. David tells you that he has only recently remembered this aspect of his childhood, and also that he has never told anyone until now.”
The results showed that more students believed the first vignette for both male and female victims.
The study revealed that recovered memories were less believable than those memories a person had all along. The average believability rating for females with a recovered memory was about 3.5, while males were given about 3.65. Females with a continuous memory were rated about 3.95, while males were rated about 4.05.
Freyd said she began thinking about the notion of bias in recovered memories through what she heard from students and the media.
“People had a tendency to disbelieve memories that were recovered, compared to memories that people said they had all along,” she said.
University Professor Pam Birrell, a licensed clinical psychologist, heard the same from students in her Culture and Mental Health class.
Birrell summed up the reason for the research when she said, “We’re trying to scientifically test what I think we kind of all know.”
She added that this research has some harsh side effects on those dealing with recovered memories.
“The worst part of this is people who have been abused and then doubt themselves and begin to think that they’re crazy,” she said. “I think there are people who’ve been wrongly accused, but I think they’re in the minority.”
Birrell said this is an issue of “societal denial of child sexual abuse.”
“Society as a whole does not want to look at this,” she said. “I would like to believe that child sexual abuse does not happen as frequently as it does.”
Robin Tiedeman, support group program coordinator for Sexual Assault Support Services, said she sees recovered memories frequently in her clients.
“Most clients that we see that have survived childhood trauma are dealing with full repressed memories or partial ones,” she said.
She added that many of them struggle with bias against recovered memories.
“As a culture, we don’t want to face what really happens,” she said. “We as a culture want to be in denial.”
She also said it is vital to create a safe environment for survivors of abuse to recover their memories, and it is equally important that they are believed.
Now that Freyd and others have done research on the topic they plan to work hard to provide accurate information so they can focus on other research topics, such as the devastation of child abuse.
Freyd will conduct a follow-up study in the spring.