Credibility and Event Frequency: Assessing the Credibility of Adults Who Recall a Repeated Event Using Reality Monitoring

Evaluators are often sceptical about the veracity of allegations for repeated events such as domestic violence. However, previous research has not examined the effect of event repetition upon verbal cues to deception using an adult sample. We conducted two experiments investigating the effect of event frequency upon adults' Reality Monitoring scores. In Experiment 1, truth-tellers experienced a single or repeated event, and a third group fabricated the event on a single occasion. In Experiment 2, participants observed or fabricated a domestic violence video on one or multiple occasions. All interview responses were coded using Reality Monitoring. In both experiments, Reality Monitoring criteria reliably classified single-event speakers, but not repeated-events speakers. There were also some differences in individual Reality Monitoring criteria as a function of event-type. Although future research is needed, Reality Monitoring does not appear to be a valid tool to assess the credibility of repeated-event speakers.