Context reinstatement effects on eyewitness memory in autism spectrum disorder

The Cognitive Interview is among the most widely accepted forms of police interviewing techniques; however, it is ineffective for witnesses with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). One of its main components involves mentally reinstating the internal and external context that was experienced at encoding. We report evidence showing that it is the mental reinstatement instructions in the absence of any physical cues that individuals with ASD find difficult. In more supported conditions where they physically return to the same environment in which they learnt the material, they recall as much as their typical counterparts. Our findings indicate that recall in ASD is aided by context, but only when supported by the physical environment. These findings have important implications for investigative interviewing procedures for witnesses with ASD.     

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.     

Positive and negative generation effects,hypermnesia, and total recall time

Self-generated information is typically remembered better than perceived information (the generation effect). Experimental design produces an important limiting condition for this effect: Generation enhances recall in within-subjects designs, but typically not in between-subjects designs. However, Mulligan (2001) found that the generation effect emerged over repeated recall tests in a between-subjects design, calling into question the generality of this limiting condition. Two experiments further delineated the emergent generation effect Experiment 1 demonstrated that this effect does not require multiple discrete recall tests but may emerge on a single recall test of long duration. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the negative generation effect (a reversal of the typical generation effect produced under certain conditions) is abolished by multiple recall tests. In both experiments, the generate condition produced greater hypemnesia (increased recall over tests) than did the read condition.     

Returning to the scene: reminders and context reinstatement enhance children's recall.

Two studies examined the efficacy of context reinstatement as a reminder in enhancing 5- to 7-year-old children's recall. In Experiment 1, children who had been interviewed shortly after an event were reinterviewed 6 months later. Children exposed to a context reminder 24 hr before the 6-month interview and children interviewed in the event context did not differ but reported significantly more information in a verbal interview than children receiving a standard interview. A control group experienced the reminder but not the event and established that the effects of the reminder were not due to new learning. There was no effect of the reminder on accuracy and no effect in reenactment. In Experiment 2, children were interviewed for the first time after 6 months, and effects of the reminder were found for both verbal recall and reenactment. Nonverbal reminders may effectively enhance the amount of information children report without decreasing accuracy.     

Lineup administrator influences on eyewitness identification and eyewitness confidence

Lineup administrators were trained to respond to witnesses in such a way as to redirect them from making non-identifications or foil identification responses toward making identifications of the suspect. Compared to a no-influence control condition, suspect identification rates in the influence condition increased substantially and proportionally for guilty and innocent suspects. Administrators steered witnesses more specifically toward the suspect when the suspect was guilty than when the suspect was innocent. Post-identification confidence for correct identifications of the guilty suspect did not differ significantly across the influence and no-influence groups. However, post-identification confidence for false identifications of the innocent suspect was significantly lower for the influence group than for the no-influence group because witnesses who were influenced to make false identifications tended to be those who were less confident prior to the lineup, and also because those witnesses became less confident from pre- to post-identification.     

Positive and negative compatibility effects

This paper reports a series of four experiments that established a negative compatibility effect (NCE) by which compatible distractors led to slower and less accurate target performance than did incompatible ones (Experiment 1). This effect is interpreted as an early perceptual effect that delays the attribution of visual attention over the target location in the compatible condition. This view predicted that the NCE should be observed only when attention has to be selectively attributed to the target location. In Experiments 2 and 3, this prediction was tested by manipulating the perceptual load in the display. High perceptual load displays are known to require selective attention (Lavie, 1995). Accordingly, reliable NCEs were observed when high-load displays were used. In contrast, reduced NCEs were found in displays that did not require selective attention. Experiment 4 established that the manifestation of the NCE was influenced by low-level visual cues, such as brightness and contrast. Overall, these experiments indicated that the NCE can be understood as an early perceptual effect, which arises from a conflict between the cues that guide the distribution of attention when the task requires selective attention.     

The effects of local and global processing orientation on eyewitness identification performance

Recent work has demonstrated that performance on a simultaneous target-present photographic line-up can be enhanced by prior global processing orientation, and hindered by prior local processing orientation induced by processing Navon letter stimuli. A series of studies explore the generality of this processing bias effect using either videotaped scenarios or live interactions. Five experiments demonstrate that these effects are seen across a range of test stimuli, test formats, and test instructions.These data inform the processes engaged in by witnesses when making line-up identifications and indicate that it may be possible to improve the accuracy of witnesses making such judgements.     

The effects of local and global processing orientation on eyewitness identification performance

Recent work has demonstrated that performance on a simultaneous target-present photographic line-up can be enhanced by prior global processing orientation, and hindered by prior local processing orientation induced by processing Navon letter stimuli. A series of studies explore the generality of this processing bias effect using either videotaped scenarios or live interactions. Five experiments demonstrate that these effects are seen across a range of test stimuli, test formats, and test instructions. These data inform the processes engaged in by witnesses when making line-up identifications and indicate that it may be possible to improve the accuracy of witnesses making such judgements.     

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.     

Repeated testing in eyewitness memory: a means to improve recall of a negative emotional event

Participants viewed either a violent, arousing film or a non-violent, control version of the same film. After viewing the film, they made three successive attempts to recall details of the event. Participants who were exposed to the negative emotional event were better than control participants at recalling details of the event itself, but they were worse at recalling details that preceded or followed the violence. Both groups of participants recalled significantly more information over successive recall attempts, suggesting that memory impairment due to arousal can be alleviated by repeated testing. Repeated testing was also associated with a small but reliable increase in memory intrusions. The implications of these findings for research on hypermnesia and on the relationship between arousal and memory are discussed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effects of mental context reinstatement on children's accounts of sexual abuse*

Forensic interviewers guided 46.4‐ to 13‐year‐old alleged victims of sexual abuse to recall the context in which the reported incidents had taken place. A comparable group of 50 alleged victims were interviewed using an interview protocol that was identical except that the mental context reinstatement (MCR) techniques were not included. MCR did not increase the total number of event‐related details reported, but it did lead children to reported proportionally more details (55% versus 46%) in response to invitations rather than focused prompts. Such information is more likely to be accurate. MCR had an especially powerful effect on the youngest children (4‐ to 6‐year‐olds) studied. The results suggest that non‐suggestive contextual cues may indeed be useful in forensic interviews. Published in 2001 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Consequentiality and eyewitness person identification

The role of consequentiality in eyewitness person identification was examined. Subjects viewed a videotape depicting a simulated bank robbery and were then asked to identify the robber from a photographic lineup. Consequentiality was induced by leading some subjects to believe that the video tape was of an actual bank robbery, and that performance on the identification task would be influential in the suspected robber's court trial. The following manipulations were included to determine the interaction of consequentiality with commonly investigated eyewitness variables: lineup instructions, accountability and suspect presence in the lineup. In addition, the data were analysed for sex differences. Analyses of identification attempts and hits revealed interactions indicating that men were more influenced by consequentiality and lineup instructions than women. The results suggest that consequentiality does play a role in certain eyewitness identification situations.     

Environmental context effects of background color in free recall

In four experiments, we investigated background-color context effects in free recall. A total of 194 undergraduates studied words presented one by one against a background color, and oral free recall was tested after a 30-sec filled retention interval. A signal for recall was presented against a background color throughout the test. Recalled items were classified as same- and different-context items according to whether the background colors at study and test were the same or different. Significant context effects were found in Experiments I and 2, in which two background colors were randomly alternated word by word. No context effects were found in Experiments 3 and 4, in which a common background color was presented for all items (Experiment 3) or for a number of successive items (Experiment 4). The results indicate that a change in background colors is necessary and sufficient to produce context effects. Implications of the present findings are discussed.     

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.     

Positive and negative effects of family involvement on work-related burnout

We aimed to explain the influence of family involvement on feelings of burnout among employees who combine work and family tasks. As proxies for family involvement, we used the family structure (partner, number and age of children) and family tasks (e.g. hours spent on household chores). We compared conflict theory and enrichment theory, and investigated how well they explain the relationship between family involvement and feelings of burnout. Based on a sample of 1046 employees at 30 Dutch organizations, the results showed that the presence of young children and doing more household chores were positively related to feelings of burnout, whereas having children reduced employees’ feelings of burnout. We also investigated interaction effects of gender and gender-role norms. We conclude that family life can reduce work-related burnout and that for men, the relationship between family involvement and feelings of burnout differs depending on whether they have traditional or modern gender-role norms.     

Positive and negative effects of family involvement on work-related burnout

We aimed to explain the influence of family involvement on feelings of burnout among employees who combine work and family tasks. As proxies for family involvement, we used the family structure (partner, number and age of children) and family tasks (e.g. hours spent on household chores). We compared conflict theory and enrichment theory, and investigated how well they explain the relationship between family involvement and feelings of burnout. Based on a sample of 1046 employees at 30 Dutch organizations, the results showed that the presence of young children and doing more household chores were positively related to feelings of burnout, whereas having children reduced employees’ feelings of burnout. We also investigated interaction effects of gender and gender-role norms. We conclude that family life can reduce work-related burnout and that for men, the relationship between family involvement and feelings of burnout differs depending on whether they have traditional or modern gender-role norms.     

Perceptual effects of scene context on object identification

Summary In a number of studies the context provided by a real-world scene has been claimed to have a mandatory, perceptual effect on the identification of individual objects in such a scene. This claim has provided a basis for challenging widely accepted data-driven models of visual perception in order to advocate alternative models with an outspoken top-down character. The present paper offers a review of the evidence to demonstrate that the observed scene-context effects may be the product of post-perceptual and task-dependent guessing strategies. A new research paradigm providing an on-line measure of genuine perceptual effects of context on object identification is proposed. First-fixation durations for objects incidentally fixated during the free exploration of real-world scenes are shown to increase when the objects are improbable in the scene or violate certain aspects of their typical spatial appearance in it. These effects of contextual violations are shown to emerge only at later stages of scene exploration, contrary to the notion of schema-driven scene perception effective from the very first scene fixation. In addition, evidence is reported in support of the existence of a facilitatory component in scene-context effects. This is taken to indicate that the context directly affects the ease of perceptual object processing and does not merely serve as a framework for checking the plausibility of the output of perceptual processes. Finally, our findings are situated against other contrasting results. Some future research questions are highlighted.     

Enhancing individual and collaborative eyewitness memory with category clustering recall

Most crimes have multiple eyewitnesses. The police typically interview co-witnesses separately. In time-sensitive investigations, this could slow down evidence accumulation. Having co-witnesses collaboratively recall a crime could potentially expedite evidence accumulation. However, past research shows that collaborative group members often have conflicting retrieval strategies that disrupt each other, degrading overall recall. This cost could potentially be overcome by aligning group members’ retrieval strategies with category clustering recall (CCR), which is a retrieval strategy where information is recalled from a series of forensically relevant categories (e.g., recalling the protagonists’ appearance, then actions). This study examined the costs and benefits of collaborative eyewitness memory by having collaborative pairs of strangers, nominal pairs (i.e., two individuals whose recall is pooled) and lone individuals watch a crime and recall it using free recall or CCR. The collaborative pairs recalled the crime faster than the nominal pairs. They also recalled more correct information than individuals but less than nominal pairs, irrespective of the retrieval method. There is therefore a speed-recall completeness trade-off when collaborative groups recall crimes. Importantly, all participants recalled more correct information when using CCR. This provides initial evidence suggesting that CCR is superior to free recall. Further research examining CCR’s benefits is recommended.     

The effects of post ‐identification feedback and age on retrospective eyewitness memory

Two studies examined the effects of post‐identification feedback, age, and retention interval on participants' memories and beliefs about memories for a videotaped event, as captured by a store surveillance camera. After viewing the video, they were then asked to identify the suspect from a target‐absent photo line‐up. After making their identification, some participants were given information suggesting that their identification was correct, while others were given no information about the accuracy of their identification. In both experiments participants who received confirming feedback indicated they were more confident in their identification, paid more attention to the video, and that they were more willing to testify in court than those who received no feedback. The confidence inflation effects of post‐identification feedback did not vary with retention interval or age. These results are consistent with a position focusing on accessibility, which suggests that witnesses have little or no retrievable recollection of how sure they were at the time of their identification. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Positive and negative generation effects in source monitoring

Research is mixed as to whether self-generation improves memory for the source of information. We propose the hypothesis that positive generation effects (better source memory for self-generated information) occur in reality-monitoring paradigms, while negative generation effects (better source memory for externally presented information) tend to occur in external source-monitoring paradigms. This hypothesis was tested in an experiment in which participants read or generated words, followed by a memory test for the source of each word (read or generated) and the word's colour. Meiser and Bröder's (2002) multinomial model for crossed source dimensions was used to analyse the data, showing that source memory for generation (reality monitoring) was superior for the generated words, while source memory for word colour (external source monitoring) was superior for the read words. The model also revealed the influence of strong response biases in the data, demonstrating the usefulness of formal modelling when examining generation effects in source monitoring.