NCJ Number
142807
Journal
Law and Human Behavior Volume: 17 Issue: 3 Dated: (June 1993) Pages: 361-369
Date Published
1993
Length
9 pages
Annotation
A sample of 253 university students participated in a study designed to identify memory testing procedures that are less likely to be suggestively influenced and therefore suitable for use with eyewitnesses.
Abstract
The study design was a 2 (verbal vs. visual test) X 2 (misled vs. control) mixed design with type of test as a between-subjects variable and item type as a within-subjects variable. In a series of 80 slides portraying a young woman going through numerous typical behaviors were two target slides; the postevent narrative described the incident portrayed in the presentation slide sequence, but each subject was misled on one of the target items and served as a control on the other. The memory test included six test items based on the two target slides plus a number of filler items (six in the visual test and 30 in the verbal test). The results indicated that the visual recognition memory test is more resistant to the suggestibility of misleading postevent information than is the verbal recognition memory test. Therefore, the data support the hypothesis that the original information and the suggested information coexist after postevent biasing, but that the suggested information renders the original information more difficult to access, particularly when the verbal test procedure is employed. 1 table and 22 references