9316130 RIERDAN On May 15, 1993, three gunmen robbed a restaurant and held ten people hostage. The hostages were bound and gagged and, with guns held to their heads, their lives were threatened. Although the hostages were not physically harmed, their terrifying ordeal lasted for almost two hours. The willingness of the hostages and their families to participate in this research study provides a rare opportunity to examine memory for an extraordinarily stressful personal event that occurred in a natural context. The hostages will be interviewed about their memories of the robbery at two time periods, one month and six months following the event. Hostages will be asked to recount the event in their own terms. Then, they will be asked a series of specific questions about the robbery, including information about the gunmen, other hostages, and the rescue. Finally, they will be asked about their own psychological reactions to the event, including persisting visual or sensory images, feelings, and thoughts. Hostages also will complete several personality tests. Memory accuracy will be evaluated by comparing hostages' reports to available objective information about the robbery. Memory consistency will be evaluated by comparing event descriptions provided by the different hostages, and also by comparing individual hostages' memories across the two time periods. Memory integration, the degree to which the memory has been incorporated into a stable sense of self, will also be assessed. Relationships between memory and personality test scores will be examined in order to determine if certain psychological attributes make it easier for a person to integrate the memory of a horrifying event into his or her ongoing life and sense of self. In addition to the hostages themselves, one male and one female member of each hostage's family will be interviewed. The interviews will assess the family members' memories of learning about the robbery from the hostages. The family members also will complete several personality tests. As with the hostages' memories, the accuracy, consistency, and organization of family members' memories will be evaluated. In addition, family members' own psychological reactions to the hostages' trauma will be assessed. This study is unique in examining memories of both the people directly experiencing a life-threatening event and also their close family members. Evaluating memories of an extraordinarily stressful event will not only inform the scientific study of basic cognitive processes, it should also deepen our understanding of the psychological processes affecting eyewitness testimony and successful adaptation to life-threatening events. ***
