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Predicting Accuracy in Eyewitness Testimonies With Memory Retrieval Effort and Confidence
Stockholm University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Psychology, Personality, Social and Developmental Psychology.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-4249-5887
Stockholm University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Psychology, Personality, Social and Developmental Psychology.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-8867-5752
Stockholm University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Psychology, Cognitive psychology.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-4280-4301
2019 (English)In: Frontiers in Psychology, E-ISSN 1664-1078, Vol. 10, article id 703Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Evaluating eyewitness testimonies has proven a difficult task. Recent research, however, suggests that incorrect memories are more effortful to retrieve than correct memories, and confidence in a memory is based on retrieval effort. We aimed to replicate and extend these findings, adding retrieval latency as a predictor of memory accuracy. Participants watched a film sequence with a staged crime and were interviewed about its content. We then analyzed retrieval effort cues in witness responses. Results showed that incorrect memories included more “effort cues” than correct memories. While correct responses were produced faster than incorrect responses, delays in responses proved a better predictor of accuracy than response latency. Furthermore, participants were more confident in correct than incorrect responses, and the effort cues partially mediated this confidence-accuracy relation. In sum, the results support previous findings of a relationship between memory accuracy and objectively verifiable cues to retrieval effort.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2019. Vol. 10, article id 703
Keywords [en]
eyewitness accuracy, eyewitness testimony, confidence-accuracy relation, response latency, retrieval effort cues
National Category
Psychology
Research subject
Psychology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-168708DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00703ISI: 000462834300001PubMedID: 30984087OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-168708DiVA, id: diva2:1313900
Funder
Magnus Bergvall Foundation, 2018-02708Available from: 2019-05-06 Created: 2019-05-06 Last updated: 2023-04-13Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. Retrieval effort and accuracy in eyewitness testimony
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Retrieval effort and accuracy in eyewitness testimony
2023 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

For better or worse, eyewitness testimonies make up common evidence in criminal trials. This has the benefit that it allows for guilty offenders to be convicted even in the absence of physical evidence. However, the fallibility of memory also means that eyewitnesses may be mistaken in their recall, risking wrongful, innocent convictions. This dilemma has sparked a multitude of studies on situations and factors that distort memory and make it unreliable, and consequently, situations where a testimony should be reliable. It has also sparked research into methods that attempt to distinguish between correct and incorrect memories. It is this latter research that forms the foundation for this thesis.

In this thesis, I have attempted to improve judgments of eyewitness accuracy by examining the relationship between expressions of effort in memory retrieval, and accuracy. The thesis builds upon earlier studies demonstrating a negative relationship between retrieval effort and accuracy (easily retrieved memories are more often correct), and explores this relationship further in eyewitness testimonies, while also addressing a number of limitations. Three empirical studies were undertaken, wherein participants saw a fictitious crime and were interviewed as eyewitnesses (Study I & II), or read testimonies and judged the accuracy of statements (Study III). Study I showed that four (para)verbal markers of retrieval effort (“retrieval-effort cues”) were more common in incorrect recall compared to correct recall in eyewitness testimonies. Study I also showed that the retrieval-effort cues mediated between confidence in a memory, and accuracy. Study II replicated Study I and moreover, showed a robustness of the findings, as retrieval-effort cues predicted accuracy both directly after viewing an event, as well as two weeks later, even when witnesses had actively engaged in memory repetition. Finally, Study III showed that fact finders could be instructed to use retrieval-effort cues to predict memory accuracy, and furthermore, results suggested that this method could be superior to fact finders’ spontaneous accuracy judgments. Taken together, this thesis provides evidence that brings us closer to a working method to judge eyewitness accuracy, and illuminates important next steps to be solved, moving forward.

Abstract [sv]

Vittnesmål från ögonvittnen utgör vanligt förekommande bevismaterial i rättsfall, vilket för med sig såväl gott som ont. En stor fördel är att det underlättar dömandet av skyldiga gärningspersoner i rättsfall där fysisk bevisföring saknas. Samtidigt innebär minnets felbarhet att ögonvittnen kan missta sig i sin minnesåterkallning, vilket kan leda till att personer döms för brott de inte begått. Utifrån detta dilemma har en stor mängd studier genomförts om situationer och faktorer som förvränger minnet och gör det opålitligt, och följaktligen också situationer där ett vittnesmål bör kunna vara pålitligt. Detta dilemma har också gett upphov till försök att ta fram metoder som kan särskilja mellan korrekta och felaktiga återkallade minnen, vilka lagt grunden för denna avhandling.

I denna avhandling har jag försökt bidra till förbättringar av bedömningar gällande korrektheten i vittnens minnesåterkallelser, genom att undersöka sambandet mellan uttryck av ansträngning i minnesåterkallning och korrektheten i denna återkallning. Avhandlingen bygger på tidigare studier som påvisat ett negativt samband mellan ansträngning i återkallning och minnets korrekhet (enkelt framplockade minnen är oftare korrekta), och utforskar detta samband vidare för vittnesmål från ögonvittnen, samtidigt som flera begränsningar i den tidigare forskningen tas i beaktelse. Tre empiriska studier genomfördes, där deltagare fick se en fiktiv brottsfilm och sedan återkalla händelsen (Studie I & II), eller fick läsa vittnesmål och ombads bedöma korrektheten i påståendena (Studie III). Studie I visade att fyra (para)verbala uttryck av ansträngning i minnesåterkallning var mer vanligt förekommande i återkallning av felaktiga minnen jämfört med återkallning av korrekta minnen. Studie I visade också att ansträngningsuttrycken medierade sambandet mellan tilliten till minnet (konfidensen) och minnets korrekthet. Studie II replikerade Studie I, och styrkte därtill robustheten i sambandet mellan ansträngningsuttryck och minneskorrekthet, då ansträngningsuttrycken predicerade korrekthet i återkallelsen både när återkallelsen skedde direkt efter händelsen, men också när den skedde två veckor senare – även när vittnena återkommande hade repeterat sina minnen av händelsen. Studie III visade att personer kan instrueras till att bedöma vittnesmål utifrån vittnens ansträngningsuttryck, och resultaten tydde vidare på att denna metod kan vara överlägsen bedömningar av korrekthet som görs utifrån bedömares egna tankar och idéer. Sammanfattningsvis har avhandlingen framtagit evidens som tar oss närmare en verksam metod för att bedöma korrekheten i vittnesmål från ögonvittnen, och belyser därtill viktiga kommande steg framöver.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Stockholm: Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, 2023. p. 80
Keywords
eyewitness testimony, eyewitness accuracy, eyewitness memory, retrieval ease, judgment accuracy
National Category
Psychology
Research subject
Psychology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:su:diva-215676 (URN)978-91-8014-260-1 (ISBN)978-91-8014-261-8 (ISBN)
Public defence
2023-05-26, hörsal 6, hus 4, Albano, Albanovägen 12, Stockholm, 13:00 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2023-05-03 Created: 2023-03-23 Last updated: 2024-02-01Bibliographically approved

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Gustafsson, Philip U.Lindholm, TorunJönsson, Fredrik U.

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