Intense emotions may make it difficult for survivors to do what?

• A. Sleep through interviews
• B. Ignore questions
• C. Listen and absorb information
• D. Recall exact dates

Answer: (C)

Intense emotions disrupt attention and how the brain processes new information. When a survivor feels strong fear, anger, or sadness, cognitive resources get diverted toward threat processing and arousal, making it hard to stay focused on what is being said. This reduces working memory and the ability to encode new details in real time, so listening and absorbing information becomes especially challenging during an interview.

That’s why the best fit is listening and absorbing information. While memory for exact dates can be affected by trauma, and some survivors may struggle with questions or experience sleep disturbances, the immediate impact of high emotion is on processing and understanding what is being communicated.