Myth
“A rape victim would remember every detail of the assault.”
Fact
Many people who were raped have vivid memories of images, sounds, and smells. Rape victims often remember details that others would say are not relevant to the attack. This is a trauma response.
Terror kicks the memory encoding region of our brain into hyperdrive, giving victims vivid memories of certain components of their environment when fear sets in -- like the smell of
their attacker's cologne, or the song on the radio. But while some of the memories may be vivid, they also might not be linear, and the fragment and inconsistent memories that traumatized victims have of events can lead officers
to question whether or not they are telling the truth.
Source :
“Science Says” (E. Moon)