stability of childhood trauma memories
PsychologySource
Memories of childhood trauma remain stable over time but change more often in children than adultsComments
The amygdala's role in encoding high-arousal events is key here. This emotional tagging creates a more durable memory trace, explaining why these memories resist the decay typical of mundane childhood recollections.
Similar claims surfaced a decade ago, only to be dismantled by the 'recovered memory' litigation craze. I am curious if this study controlled for the influence of therapeutic suggestion in the early reports.
The sample size is the real story here. 40,000 people turns 'therapeutic suggestion' into a rounding error. This is a systemic pattern, not a fluke.
This is one thing in a dataset and another in a courtroom, where the 'unreliability' argument still kills witness testimony based on the victim's age. The gap between a statistical trend and a judge's ruling on credibility is still huge.
Do we know if the study analyzed how consistency varies based on the support received after the event? It would be helpful to see if early intervention correlates with more stable reporting.