Citation

Chapman P, Underwood GJ. Appl. Cogn. Psychol. 2000; 14(1): 31-44.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2000, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/(SICI)1099-0720(200001)14:1<31::AID-ACP622>3.0.CO;2-9

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

It is often assumed that real-life events such as minor road accidents and near accidents will be well remembered. However, surveys of self-reported accidents suggest that respondents apparently forget approximately one third of their road accidents each year. This paper explores this possibility by looking at memory for the near-accidents in which drivers are involved. In a pilot study drivers carried microcassette recorders in their cars and reported near-accidents after each journey. These data confirmed that the frequency of near-accidents is greatly underestimated when subjects are simply asked to recall them. The main study then compared reports and recalls of over 7000 car journeys from 80 subjects over the course of a year. These included more than 400 reports or recalls of near-accidents. The influences of the driver's experience, the severity of the near-accident, and the driver's self-perceived degree of blame were additionally explored. It is concluded that near-accidents are generally forgotten extremely rapidly, with an estimated 80% of incidents being no longer reported after a delay of up to two weeks. Serious near-accidents and those where the driver admitted being to blame in the incident were least likely to be forgotten. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Language: en