CAN SALIENT ASPECTS OF AN EVENT BE FORGOTTEN IF A WITNESS IS NOT QUESTIONED ABOUT THEM?
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1
Southern Cross University, Psychology, School of Health and Human Sciences, Australia
Aims: Witness memory is important in the justice system but the details recalled and their accuracy can be affected by many factors, potentially leading to miscarriages of justice. The aim of this study was to investigate the interaction between Retrieval Induced Forgetting and the Weapon Focus Effect. Retrieval Induced Forgetting refers to the finding that if you actively retrieve information, other related information may be poorly recalled later on. The Weapon Focus Effect is where focusing attention on a particular salient object (not necessarily a weapon) impedes memory for other aspects of the event.
Method: One hundred and fifty-eight participants completed the study online, which included a video of a person leaving a bag behind in an airport terminal. Participants were primed to attend to either the person’s bag (n = 83) or physical appearance (n = 75) before watching the video. They participated in retrieval practice questions focused on either the bag or person. Participants completed a distractor task and final questioning regarding bag, person and surrounding details.
Results: In the Attention on Bag condition, retrieval practice focusing on the bag reduced accuracy for the person questions relative to when retrieval practice was on the person. This did not improve accuracy for the bag questions. There was no effect of retrieval practice in the Attention on Person condition. In both conditions, accuracy for person questions was greater than the bag questions, with questions about other details least remembered.
Conclusions: Overall, memory accuracy for the person was high and only decreased when both the focus of attention and retrieval practice was on the bag. This could be explained by attentional narrowing; where participants deemed the person details central to the event even when attention focus was primed towards the bag. Central details appear to capture attention, improving memory recall performance.
Keywords:
Attention,
Eyewitness Memory,
Recall,
retrieval induced forgetting,
Weapon focus
Conference:
Southern Cross University 14th Annual Honours Psychology Research Conference, Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australia, 5 Oct - 6 Oct, 2017.
Presentation Type:
Research
Topic:
Psychology
Citation:
Gosper
J and
Longstaff
M
(2017). CAN SALIENT ASPECTS OF AN EVENT BE FORGOTTEN IF A WITNESS IS NOT QUESTIONED ABOUT THEM?.
Front. Psychol.
Conference Abstract:
Southern Cross University 14th Annual Honours Psychology Research Conference.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fpsyg.2017.72.00011
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Received:
25 Sep 2017;
Published Online:
11 Dec 2017.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Mitchell Longstaff, Southern Cross University, Psychology, School of Health and Human Sciences, Coffs Harbour, NSW, 2450, Australia, mitchell.longstaff@scu.edu.au