TESTING EYEWITNESS MEMORY - DEVELOPING A MEASURE THAT IS MORE RESISTANT TO SUGGESTIBILITY

Authors
Citation
K. Pezdek et J. Greene, TESTING EYEWITNESS MEMORY - DEVELOPING A MEASURE THAT IS MORE RESISTANT TO SUGGESTIBILITY, Law and human behavior, 17(3), 1993, pp. 361-369
Citations number
22
Categorie Soggetti
Law
Journal title
ISSN journal
01477307
Volume
17
Issue
3
Year of publication
1993
Pages
361 - 369
Database
ISI
SICI code
0147-7307(1993)17:3<361:TEM-DA>2.0.ZU;2-E
Abstract
This study identifies a memory-testing procedure that is relatively re sistant to the documented effects of suggestibility on eyewitness memo ry. Most studies on suggestibility have used a verbal recognition memo ry test in which the alternative test items are sentences, each to be verified as true or false regarding an originally viewed visual sequen ce. In this study, participants were tested with either the verbal rec ognition memory test typical of studies demonstrating the eyewitness s uggestibility effect or a visual recognition memory test. The typical eyewitness suggestibility effect resulted in the verbal test condition . However, with the visual recognition memory test, the hit rates did not significantly differ between the control and misled conditions. Th us, in testing memory for a visual event, a visual recognition memory test is more resistant to the influences of suggestibility than is a v erbal test. These results suggest that the original item is preserved in memory, not overwritten by the misleading information. Accordingly, with a visual recognition memory test, the original information is mo re likely to be recovered with a visual recognition memory test than w ith a verbal one.