Facilitating eyewitness memory in adults and children with context reinstatement and focused meditation

This study examined the comparative efficacy of two brief techniques for facilitating eyewitness memory in police investigations. Adult and child participants (N = 126; 64 children and 62 adults) who had viewed a videotape of a crime were subsequently tested for their memory of the event following either a focused meditation procedure (FM, derived from hypnotic interviewing techniques), a context reinstatement procedure (CR, a component of the cognitive interview), or a control procedure (no memory facilitation instructions). For both adults and children, the FM and CR procedures enhanced performance on both open‐ended and closed questions to levels above those achieved by controls, although those in the CR condition produced significantly more correct responses than those in the FM condition. However, only those in the CR group displayed elevated levels of confidence in relation to incorrect responses on closed questions. Implications for the possible use of such procedures are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Demand and the impact of leading questions on eyewitness testimony

Recently, Loftus and her associates have demonstrated that the ability of subjects to respond accurately to questioning about an event they witnessed can be systematically imparied by the interposition of misleading questions between exposure to the event and assessment of accuracy. One explanation for this low eyewitness accuracy is that it is due to demand characteristics created by the misleading questions. The present study addresses this issue using a modification of the paradigm developed by Loftus, Miller, and Burns (1978). The results indicate that even when the final accuracy test does not easily allow subjects to accede to demand pressure, significant impairment of eyewitness accuracy is still obtained. Since this lowered accuracy does not seem due to simple compliance to demand pressure, it suggests that misleading questions do in fact interfere with subsequent eyewitness accuracy.     

Immediate and persisting effects of misleading questions and hypnosis on memory reports

Immediate and persisting effects of misleading questions and hypnosis on memory reports were assessed. After listening to a story, 52 highly suggestible students and 59 low and medium suggestible students were asked misleading or neutral questions in or out of hypnosis. All participants were then asked neutral questions without hypnosis. Both hypnosis and misleading questions significantly increased memory errors, and misleading questions produced significantly more errors than did hypnosis. The 2 effects were additive, so that misleading questions in hypnosis produced the greatest number of errors. There were no significant interactions with level of hypnotic suggestibility. Implications of these findings for the per se exclusion of posthypnotic testimony are discussed.     

Acceptance of misleading information by children and adults.

A total of 294 subjects from Grades 1, 3, 6, and college viewed a videotape of a birthday party and heard misleading information embedded in three of nine questions they answered about what they had seen. Two days later, the subjects answered six additional questions which tested whether they had accepted the misleading information. Half the subjects had heard misleading information about three of the questions and half heard misleading information about the other three questions. The results indicated that a significant number of both children and adults accepted the misleading information embedded in three of the six questions. For only one question was there any difference in the likelihood that subjects in different grades would accept misleading information.     

The effects of memory trace strength on eyewitness recall in children with and without intellectual disabilities

Children with mild moderate intellectual disabilities (ID) were compared with typically developing peers of the same chronological age (CA) on an eyewitness memory task in which memory trace strength was manipulated to examine whether increased memory trace strength would benefit those with ID more than those without ID. No evidence was found for this claim or for the notion that different mechanisms are implicated in memory processes for children with ID versus CA controls. Fuzzy-trace theory was also used to contrast question types that probed verbatim memory versus gist memory. Manipulations of trace strength, when used with immediate recall (to reduce the impact of decay), were predicted to improve verbatim memory more than gist memory. The results broadly supported the predictions. Performance was not improved in the stronger trace strength condition on measures of recall that tapped gist memory (e.g., open-ended recall), whereas performance was significantly better in the stronger trace strength condition on two of the three measures of recall that tapped verbatim memory (i.e., closed misleading questions, open-ended specific questions). Differences in performance between the groups were quite marked on several question types, supporting previous findings that those with ID have certain vulnerabilities as potential witnesses compared with peers of the same CA.     

Leading questions and the eyewitness report

A total of 490 subjects, in four experiments, saw films of complex, fast-moving events, such as automobile accidents or classroom disruptions. The purpose of these experiments was to investigate how the wording of questions asked immediately after an event may influence responses to questions asked considerably later. It is shown that when the initial question contains either true presuppositions (e.g., it postulates the existence of an object that did exist in the scene) or false presuppositions (e.g., postulates the existence of an object that did not exist), the likelihood is increased that subjects will later report having seen the presupposed object. The results suggest that questions asked immediately after an event can introduce new—not necessarily correct—information, which is then added to the memorial representation of the event, thereby causing its reconstruction or alteration.     

The eyewitness suggestibility effect and memory for source

We examined the possibility that eyewitness suggestibility reflects failures of the processes by which people normally discriminate between memories derived from different sources. To test this hypothesis, misled and control subjects were tested either with a yes/no recognition test or with a "source monitoring" test designed to orient subjects to attend to information about the sources of their memories. The results demonstrate that suggestibility effects obtained with a recognition test can be eliminated by orienting subjects toward thinking about the sources of their memories while taking the test. Our findings indicate that although misled subjects are capable of identifying the source of their memories of misleading suggestions, they nonetheless sometimes misidentify them as memories derived from the original event. The extent to which such errors reflect genuine memory confusions (produced, for example, by lax judgment criteria) or conscious misattributions (perhaps due to demand characteristics) remains to be specified.     

The effects of varied retrieval cues on reminiscence in eyewitness memory

Eyewitnesses sometimes recall things at later interviews that they did not recall at previous interviews (reminiscence). When these cases are argued in the courtroom, attorneys may claim (and judges may warn jurors) that eyewitnesses who provide reminiscences are necessarily inaccurate witnesses. Consequently, their testimony may be prematurely discredited or dismissed. We examined here the role of varying the retrieval cues across interviews to account for reminiscence. Participants watched a videotaped mock crime and were tested for recall on two occasions using the same or different cues. Results supported the hypothesis that varying retrieval cues increases the amount of reminiscence. Furthermore, nearly all participants exhibited some reminiscence. Finally, reminiscence was not significantly correlated with overall accuracy of testimony. These findings suggest that many of the assumptions underlying legal tactics and judges' instructions regarding reminiscent inconsistencies are erroneous. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The influence of alcohol and weapon presence on eyewitness memory and confidence

In this quasi-experimental field study, bar drinkers (0.00–0.23% blood alcohol content) viewed a photographic sequence in which a male took a laptop from a helpdesk assistant, either on loan or at gunpoint. Following a brief retention period, participants answered 20 multiple-choice questions about the male, his actions, and details of the scene, then attempted to identify him from a simultaneous target-present or target-absent line-up. Alcohol was associated with a reduction in correct identifications and an increase in false identifications. Surprisingly, the presence of a weapon in the scene enhanced identification accuracy, though wider scene memory was not influenced by alcohol or the weapon. Findings offer some support for the view that alcohol restricts face encoding, perhaps through the narrowing of attention to salient external features (e.g., hair). We also suggest that curiosity about mock-crime perpetrators may produce weapon focus reversals, although the factors that might elicit such curiosity remain unclear.     

Some effects of alcohol on eyewitness memory

Male volunteers (N = 120) in small groups of 5 to 10 watched a staged theft involving live actors. Some (n = 47) were under the influence of alcohol (average blood alcohol level of .10) at the time. Some subjects (n = 58) were interviewed immediately after the event, and all were interviewed 1 week later. The delayed interview included the presentation of a photospread that either did or did not contain the picture of the "thief." Alcohol suppressed the amount recalled during the immediate interview and both the amount and accuracy of recall after the 1-week delay. Alcohol had no influence on the ability of witnesses to recognize the thief's picture. When the thief's picture was not present in the photospread, however, alcohol increased the rate of false identifications. An immediate interview substantially improved the amount of information subjects were able to recall 1 week later.     

Reminiscence and hypermnesia in children's eyewitness memory

Three experiments examined reminiscence and hypermnesia in 5- and 6-year-olds' memory for an event across repeated interviews that occurred either immediately afterward (Experiment 1) or after a 6-month delay (Experiments 2 and 3). Reminiscence (recall of new information) was reliably obtained in all of the experiments, although the numbers of new items recalled were fewer after a delay than when the interviews occurred immediately afterward. Hypermnesia (increasing total recall over repeated recall attempts) was obtained only in Experiment 1 when interviews occurred immediately and 24 h after the event.     

The effects of co-witness discussion on confidence and precision in eyewitness memory reports

We examined the influence of co-witness discussion on the metacognitive regulation of memory reports. Participants (N?=?92) watched a crime video. Later, a confederate confidently agreed with (gave confirming feedback), disagreed with (gave disconfirming feedback), or gave no feedback (control) regarding participants’ answers to questions about the video. Participants who received disconfirming feedback reported fewer fine-grain details than participants in the confirming and control conditions on a subsequent, individual recall test for a different question set. Unexpectedly, this decrease in fine-grain reporting was not accompanied by a decrease in participants’ confidence in the accuracy of their fine-grain responses. These results indicate that receiving social comparative feedback about one’s memory performance can affect rememberers’ metamemorial control decisions, and potentially decrease the level of detail they volunteer in later memory reports. Further research is needed to assess whether these results replicate under different experimental conditions, and to explore the effects of social influences on metamemory.     

The impact of finger counting habits on arithmetic in adults and children

Here, we explored the impact of finger counting habits on arithmetic in both adults and children. Two groups of participants were examined, those that begin counting with their left hand (left-starters) and those that begin counting with their right hand (right-starters). For the adults, performance on an addition task in which participants added 2 two-digit numbers was compared. The results revealed that left-starters were slower than right-starters when adding and they had lower forward and backward digit-span scores. The children (aged 5–12) showed similar results on a single-digit timed addition task—right-starters outperformed left-starters. However, the children did not reveal differences in working memory or verbal and non-verbal intelligence as a function of finger counting habit. We argue that the motor act of finger counting influences how number is represented and suggest that left-starters may have a more bilateral representation that accounts for the slower processing.     

Cross-cultural differences in eyewitness memory reports

Increasingly, investigators conduct interviews with eyewitnesses from different cultures. The culture in which people have been socialised can impact the way they encode, remember, and report information about their experiences. We examined whether eyewitness memory reports of mock witnesses from collectivistic (sub-Saharan Africa) and individualistic (Northern Europe) cultures differed regarding quantity and quality of central and background details reported. Mock witnesses (total N = 200) from rural Ghana, urban Ghana, and the Netherlands were shown stimuli scenes of crimes in Dutch and Ghanaian settings and provided free and cued recalls. Individualistic culture mock witnesses reported the most details, irrespective of detail type. For each cultural group, mock witnesses reported more correct central details when crime was witnessed in their own native setting than a non-native setting, though for different recall domains. The findings provide insight for legal and investigative professionals as well as immigration officials eliciting memory reports in cross-cultural contexts.     

Role of environmental context in eyewitness memory

We investigated whether varying the environmental context will affect the magnitude of retroactive interference produced by misleading postevent information in an eyewitness memory paradigm. Previous eyewitness memory studies have typically presented the original and misleading information in the same environmental context. In this experiment, the physical contexts in which the original information and the misleading information were presented were varied, a procedure that is more analogous to what usually occurs in real world situations. We tested 288 subjects, half using the original and misleading information in the same encoding context and half using a different context for presenting the two types of information. Memory for the original event was assessed using either the standard recognition test procedure or the modified test developed by McCloskey and Zaragoza (1985). Measures of both recognition accuracy and response latency showed no difference in performance attributable to varying the environmental context. The present data replicate the findings of previous single-context experiments that showed the two recognition test procedures to produce different patterns of results. Thus, environmental context seems to play little role in determining the magnitude of the misleading postevent information effect.     

Selective retrieval and induced forgetting in eyewitness memory

This study analyses retrieval‐induced forgetting (RIF) in eyewitness memory. Selective retrieval of specific information about an event could cause eyewitnesses to forget related contents. Based on a video of a man being robbed while withdrawing money from a cash machine, we examined the effects of partial retrieval on the most relevant aspects of the event: actions (Experiment 1) and offender characteristics (Experiment 2), in both immediate and long‐term recall (24 hours). In both experiments long‐term recall was a replica of immediate recall for correct information as well as errors. The effects of partial retrieval practice were also repeated in long‐term recall. Conventional RIF was found for offender characteristics but selective retrieval of the actions of the event produced no comparable effect. It is assumed that the organisation and integration of the actions of the event protected them from RIF. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effects of interacting in repeated events on children's eyewitness memory and source monitoring

Accurate eyewitness memory of an event may be affected by exposure to and degree of involvement with other related events. In this study, we investigated whether interacting in a related video event affected children's accounts of a real-life target event, and whether interacting in the target event affected memory for different details within the target event. Four-, 6-, and 9-year-old children interacted with an adult who made a puppet. Half of the children in each age group also interacted with a video of a similar event (interactive condition) and half sat and watched the video without interacting (watch condition). When asked non-misleading questions a week later, children in the interactive condition confused the two events more than those in the watch condition. The 4-year-olds in the interactive condition reported a higher rate of confusions in free recall than the 4-year-olds in the watch condition. There were no effects of interaction on responses to misleading questions. The 6- and 9-year-olds were more accurate at answering questions related to actions they themselves had performed than actions performed by the experimenter, although this pattern was reversed for the 4-year-olds. The results are discussed in terms of children's eyewitness memory. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The role of commitment in producing misinformation effects in eyewitness memory

We conducted three experiments exploring conditions in which misleading postevent information interferes with people’s ability to remember details about an event they witnessed. The key condition included in each experiment was the misled-plus-commit condition. After viewing slides depicting a crime, subjects in this condition read a narrative that contained misinformation. Following the narrative, they completed an interpolated recognition test that induced them to select the misinformation. Assessment of memory for the slides using a final, modified recognition test indicated that performance in the misled-plus-commit condition was most frequently near chance, whereas performance in the control condition was far above chance. This result was obtained on four separate occasions and indicates that prior retrieval of misinformation impairs memory. Another important finding was that the deleterious effect of passively reading about misinformation in a narrative is not as great as the effect of reading about it and then selecting it on an interpolated test. Actively retrieving misinformation seems to cause particularly deleterious effects. Our conclusion is that the findings are compatible with the retrieval blocking hypothesis, which assumes that repeated retrieval of misinformation blocks access to the witnessed information.