The effects of event-based drawing and comfort-drawing in an interview context on memory and intrusions

Objective Given the growing popularity of arts-based interventions, our study examined the effects of drawing during an interview about a distressing event on conscious event recall and intrusions.Method We used a single-blind design where participants who had experienced a negative/stressful event were randomly allocated to draw while sharing a negative experience (event-drawing condition; n = 20), draw something unrelated to the event while sharing (comfort-drawing condition; n = 19), or only talk about the experience (talk-only control condition; n = 20).Results Event-drawing increased the amount of information reported (d = 0.88) and forensically relevant statements regarding event locations (d = 0.73) during interviews compared to talk-only. Comfort-drawing did not have the same memory benefits as event-drawing and neither event-drawing nor comfort-drawing during an interview influenced intrusions compared to talk-only.Conclusions Future research is needed to confirm whether the conscious recall benefits of event-drawing during a distressing experience extend to event accuracy. Continued research on the effects of drawing on autobiographical conscious recall and intrusions will enable updating of best practices for drawing interventions in interviews.