Craig Thorley

Collaborative false recall in the DRM procedure: Effects of group size and group pressure

Basden, Basden, Thomas, and Souphasith (1998) demonstrated that false recall in collaborative trios is enhanced when group members feel under pressure to output items. In the present study, individuals, pairs, trios, and quartets were presented with lists of words drawn from the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm. Memory was tested under high or low group pressure conditions. It was found that false recall increased in proportion to group size regardless of group pressure, but that groups experiencing the most pressure to output items made a greater number of errors. Furthermore, on a surprise later individual recall test, participants who experienced the most pressure during collaboration retained an equivalent level of critical lures. Collectively these findings demonstrate that group pressure can increase collaborative false recall, and that these false memories can be retained beyond group testing.

False and veridical collaborative recognition

Participants studied DRM words lists (Deese, 1959; Roediger & McDermott, 1995) and then completed a recognition test individually or in a collaborative pair, trio, or quartet. The collaborative groups’ responses were compared to those of equivalent sized nominal groups. Non-studied critical lure and studied word recognition increased with group size and these increases were greatest for the collaborative groups. The collaborative groups’ critical lure and studied word recognition rates were facilitated as they lowered their response criterion thresholds towards all test words semantically related to those in the DRM lists. Prior collaboration also enhanced later individual critical lure and studied word recognition. The group members believed the critical lures and studied words recognised during collaboration were studied, and they therefore repeated these judgements when tested alone.

Mood Congruent False Memories Persist Over Time

In this study, we examined the role of mood-congruency and retention interval on the false recognition of emotion laden items using the Deese/Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm. Previous research has shown a mood-congruent false memory enhancement during immediate recognition tasks. The present study examined the persistence of this effect following a one-week delay. Participants were placed in a negative or neutral mood, presented with negative-emotion and neutral-emotion DRM word lists, and administered with both immediate and delayed recognition tests. Results showed that a negative mood state increased remember judgments for negative-emotion critical lures, in comparison to neutral-emotion critical lures, on both immediate and delayed testing. These findings are discussed in relation to theories of spreading activation and emotion-enhanced memory, with consideration of the applied forensic implications of such findings.

Mood Impairs Time-Based Prospective Memory in Young but Not Older Adults: The Mediating Role of Attentional Control

The present study examined age-by-mood interactions in prospective memory and the potential role of attentional control. Positive, negative, or neutral mood was induced in young and older adults. Subsequent time-based prospective memory performance was tested, incorporating a measure of online attentional control shifts between the ongoing and the prospective memory task via time monitoring behavior. Mood impaired prospective memory in the young, but not older, adults. Moderated mediation analyses showed that mood effects in the young were mediated by changes in time monitoring. Results are discussed in relation to findings from the broader cognitive emotional aging literature.

Blame Conformity: Innocent Bystanders Can Be Blamed for a Crime as a Result of Misinformation from a Young, but Not Elderly, Adult Co-Witness

This study examined whether or not exposing an eyewitness to a co-witness statement that incorrectly blames an innocent bystander for a crime can increase the likelihood of the eyewitness subsequently blaming the innocent bystander for the crime. It also examined whether or not the perceived age of the co-witness influences this effect. Participant eyewitnesses first watched a video of a crime featuring a perpetrator and an innocent bystander. They then read one of six bogus co-witness statements about the crime. All were presented as having been written by a female co-witness and they differed in terms of her age (young adult or elderly) and who she blamed for the crime (the perpetrator, the innocent bystander, or nobody). One week later the participants were asked who committed the crime. When the young adult co-witness had blamed the innocent bystander just over 40% of participants subsequently did the same. Few participants (less than 8%) in the other conditions subsequently blamed the innocent bystander. The elderly co-witness was also rated as less credible, less competent, and less accurate than the younger co-witness suggesting eyewitnesses were less likely to be influenced by her incorrect statement as they perceived her to be a less reliable source of information. The applied implications of these findings are discussed.

Memory conformity and suggestibility

Abstract The present study examined whether the degree to which participants engage in memory conformity, which occurs when a person alters their memory report of an event to be consistent with another person, can be predicted by their levels of interrogative suggestibility (IS), which is the degree to which people are susceptible to altering their memory reports during questioning. Memory conformity was introduced by having participant and confederate pairs study words and then complete a social recognition test where they took turns to make judgements to the same items. When the participants responded after the confederate, they tended to conform to confederates judgements regardless of whether the confederate had made a correct or incorrect response. IS was measured using the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale 2. This scale allows separate measures of Yield, which is a measure of how susceptible people are to altering their memory reports of events as a result of leading questions, and Shift, which is a measure of how susceptible people are to changing responses to questions when placed under pressure to do so. Only Yield was a significant predictor of memory conformity.

The impact of note taking style and note availability at retrieval on mock jurors' recall and recognition of trial information.

Jurors forget critical trial information and what they do recall can be inaccurate. Jurors’ recall of trial information can be enhanced by permitting them to take notes during a trial onto blank sheets of paper (henceforth called freestyle note taking). A recent innovation is the trial-ordered-notebook (TON) for jurors, which is a notebook containing headings outlining the trial proceedings and which has space beneath each heading for notes. In a direct comparison, TON note takers recalled more trial information than freestyle note takers. This study investigated whether or not note taking improves recall as a result of enhanced encoding or as a result of note access at retrieval. To assess this, mock jurors watched and freely recalled a trial video with one-fifth taking no notes, two-fifths taking freestyle notes and two-fifths using TONs. During retrieval, half of the freestyle and TON note takers could access their notes. Note taking enhanced recall, with the freestyle note takers and TON note takers without note access performing equally as well. Note taking therefore enhances encoding. Recall was greatest for the TON note takers with note access, suggesting a retrieval enhancement unique to this condition. The theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed.

Eyewitness susceptibility to co-witness misinformation is influenced by co-witness confidence and own self-confidence

ABSTRACT If an eyewitness is exposed to a co-witness statement that incorrectly blames an innocent bystander for a crime, the eyewitness can be influenced by this statement and also blame the innocent bystander for the crime. This effect is known as blame conformity. In two studies, we examined whether or not this effect is influenced by the degree of confidence a co-witness expresses in her incorrect statement (Study 1) and an eyewitness’s own level of self-confidence (Study 2). Participant eyewitnesses first watched a crime video featuring a perpetrator and an innocent bystander, then read a co-witness statement about the crime that either correctly blamed the perpetrator, incorrectly blamed the innocent bystander, or blamed nobody (a control condition). They were then asked who committed the crime. In Study 1, participants who read an incorrect statement were at increased risk of engaging in blame conformity when the co-witness expressed a high level of confidence, compared to a low level of confidence, in the accuracy of her statement. In Study 2, participants who were lowest in self-confidence were at increased risk of engaging in blame conformity. The theoretical underpinnings of these effects are considered.

Eyewitness memory: The impact of a negative mood during encoding and/or retrieval upon recall of a non-emotive event

The police often appeal for eyewitnesses to events that were unlikely to have been emotive when observed. An eyewitness, however, may be in a negative mood whilst encoding or retrieving such events as mood can be influenced by a range of personal, social, and environmental factors. For example, bad weather can induce a negative mood. This experiment compared the impact of negative and neutral moods during encoding and/or retrieval upon eyewitness recall of a non-emotive event. A negative mood during encoding had no impact upon the number of correct details recalled (provided participants were in a neutral mood at retrieval) but a negative mood during retrieval impaired the number of correct details recalled (provided participants were in a neutral mood at encoding). A negative mood at both time points enhanced the number of correct details recalled, demonstrating a mood-dependent memory enhancement. The forensic implications of these findings are discussed.

The impact of own and others' alcohol consumption on social contagion following a collaborative memory task

ABSTRACT When one person alters his or her recollection of an event to be consistent with another persons erroneous account of the same event, social contagion has occurred. In two studies, we examined whether alcohol consumption influences the degree to which people engage in social contagion. In Study 1, participants consumed alcohol, an alcohol placebo, or a soft drink and then completed a collaborative recall test with a confederate who consumed a soft drink. In Study 2, participants consumed a soft drink and then completed a collaborative recall test with a confederate they believed had consumed a soft drink or alcohol (but no alcohol was ever consumed). In both studies, the confederate made scripted errors during the collaborative recall test. On post-collaborative individual recall and recognition tests, participants in both studies engaged in social contagion by including the confederates errors in their own recollection. In Study 1, the drink participants consumed had no influence on social contagion. In Study 2, participants were less likely to engage in social contagion after collaborating with a confederate who had seemingly consumed alcohol. That same confederate was viewed as less accurate, trustworthy, and credible, which likely made participants less inclined to engage in social contagion.