Predicting Eyewitness Memory Accuracy Across Two Studies: Personality and Situational Influences

• In Event: Posters II

Abstract

Crimes happen spontaneously and anyone can become a witness unexpectedly. Even though eyewitness testimony is often distorted, juries find vivid eyewitness recollections persuasive (Leippe, 1985; Loftus, 2011). Two studies examined predictors of eyewitness accuracy after observing a fictional crime. Study 1 participants (n = 126) read incorrect information about the crime either before or after seeing the video; the source of the errors was either a police officer (high credibility) or a child (low credibility). While source credibility had no effect on memory accuracy, there was a significant order effect (p = .039). Misinformation after the crime led to worse memory than misinformation beforehand. In addition, conscientiousness was marginally positively correlated with the ability to ignore misinformation (p = .071).
Study 2 (n = 189) analyzed sex, age, conscientiousness, and manipulated expectations of memory accuracy. While there was no main effect of experimentally primed expectations of accuracy, age was negatively correlated with accuracy (p < .001), women were marginally better witnesses (p = .065), and conscientiousness was positively correlated with accuracy (p = .046). Studying individual traits as well as outside variables can help determine factors that influence memory accuracy among witnesses. Implications, limitations, and future research are discussed.

Authors

• Jamie Rich, Buena Vista University

• Wind Goodfriend, Buena Vista University