ABSTRACT
In 1989, a paper was published by Kassin, Ellsworth, and Smith in which experts in eyewitness psychology were asked to respond to various statements. Some of the statements concerned emotion, stress, and memory. One of the conclusions from this study was that the majority of experts believed that violent and stressful events are remembered less well than nonviolent events. Are these experts right? In my opinion, the problem is far too complex to be described using such general statements. The aim of this chapter is to show the complexity of the relationship between emotional stress and memory, and the lack of evidence that emotional stress generally decreases memory performance—or the opposite, that emotional events are remembered in perfect detail (see Christianson, 1992, for a review). Such opinions (or positions) are more governed by political and personal factors than by empirical findings obtained in experimental and clinical research.
