Research reveals that severe events are recalled better than less severe events (Monroe 2008), so to the extent that the focus is on the assessment of severe discriminatory incidents the recall problem may be somewhat minimized. More importantly, the assessment tools for the assessment of discrimination need to be appropriate to the task. More research is needed on how experiences of racial discrimination are stored in memory and best accessed for recall. In the meantime, research studying lifetime exposure to discrimination should consider using an event history calendar. It is a procedure that has been developed by cognitive psychologists that capitalizes on current scientific understanding of the nature of autobiographical memory to assess experiences over the life course (Belli 1998). More generally, research by cognitive psychologists and survey methodologists provide many insights into how respondents understand, interpret, and respond to questions that would enhance the collection of data on discrimination (Schwarz 2007). We consider a few examples.
