CAN A SURVEY OF BRITISH-FALSE-MEMORY-SOCIETY MEMBERS RELIABLY INFORM THE RECOVERED MEMORY DEBATE

Gudjonsson has conducted a timely and welcome survey of BFMS members, who are to be commended for their frank responses. However, their answ ers can provide only partial information about the nature, circumstanc es and consequences of recovered memories. Attention is drawn to featu res of the way the data are presented that could result in potentially misleading conclusions. The unsystematic inclusion and exclusion of m issing values has resulted in inflated frequencies when missing data a re excluded from overall proportions. Furthermore, nearly a third of r espondents were not sure, or denied, that recovered memories were invo lved in the accusations. The data are presented with no distinction be tween these respondents and respondents reporting clear recovered memo ry accusations.