NCJ Number
76185
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 8 Issue: 6 Dated: (1980) Pages: 395-403
Date Published
1981
Length
9 pages
Annotation
The results of an examination of the relationship between criminal offense eyewitness accuracy and avenues for the retention of simpler information in classical learning and memory paradigms.
Abstract
The subjects were 62 undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory psychology course. The participants were divided into groups ranging in size from one to nine students. The subjects were exposed to videotape interviews with three individuals, tapes of high or low arousal incident segments, and six persons in a lineup format, including the three individuals involved in earlier segments. The participants worked on filler material between exposures, and were asked to recall details of the incidents and actors, and to identify in the lineup individuals who participated in the segments. The participants' abilities to recall information accurately declined with increased delay between exposure to the incident and recall. Increasing arousal marginally interfered with the subjects' ability to recognize incident participants accurately. Prior exposure to the actors increased recognition accuracy. The learning characteristics exhibited by the subjects in this study compared positively with those identified in previous studies using more traditional material. Tabular data, notes, and 20 references are included.