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How eyewitnesses talk about events 2 Eyewitnesses to traumatic events typically talk about them, and they may do so for different reasons. Of interest was whether qualitatively different retellings would lead to quantitative differences in later memory. All subjects watched a violent film scene; 1/3 talked about their emotional reactions to the film (as one might do when talking to a friend), 1/3 described the events of the film clip (as the police might request), and 1/3 did unrelated tasks. Following a delay, all participants were tested on their memories for the clip. Talking about emotions led to better memory for one’s emotions, but also led to subjectivity and a greater proportion of major errors in free recall. Differences were minimized on tests providing more retrieval cues, suggesting that retellings’ consequences for memory are larger when subjects have to generate their own retrieval structures. How eyewitnesses talk about events 3 How Eyewitnesses Talk About Events: Implications for Memory