SARMAC XI

In July 2016, Joanne Rechdan and Aleksandras Izotovas will present their research at the European Association of Psychology and Law (EAPL) conference in Toulouse, France. Below you will find details of each talk and poster.

Joanne Rechdan

Title: The effects of social comparative feedback on grain size and confidence in eyewitness reports.

Abstract: Memory reports can be influenced by information from the social environment, particularly when a witness’s memory for event/item details is weak (Betz et al., 1996; Bless et al., 2001). Receiving even indirect information about a co-witness’ account can alter confidence in memory, and influence performance on subsequent memory tasks (Leippe et al., 2006). Research has yet to identify the metacognitive mechanisms underlying social influence effects on memory reporting.

According to the Revised Dual-criterion Model (Ackerman & Goldsmith, 2008), people volunteer answers when they feel sufficiently confident of their accuracy, and when those answers are at a level of detail (‘grain-size’) that renders them acceptably informative. The model has proven useful for the study of metacognitive monitoring and control in eyewitness reporting. In two studies, Weber and Brewer (2008) found that the level of detail reported by mock witnesses was strongly, positively correlated to their confidence in the accuracy of their fine-grain responses.

We examined the effects of social comparative feedback provided by a co-witness on participants’ confidence, accuracy, and grain-size of recall on a subsequent memory assessment. Participants (N = 90) watched a video of a non-violent crime and completed a ‘practice’ recall task with a confederate (‘co-witness’). Across three experimental conditions, the confederate (1) agreed, (2) disagreed, or (3) made no comment on the participant’s answers. Results show that participants in the disagree condition selected significantly fewer fine-grain details to include in their final report when compared to participants in the control and agree conditions, F (2, 88) = 5.53, p = .005. Participants’ confidence in their fine-grain answers was unaffected by the manipulation. The implications of these findings will be discussed in light of the Revised Dual Criterion Model (Ackerman & Goldsmith, 2008).

Rechdan, J., Hope, L., Sauerland, M., Sauer, J.D., & Ost, J. (2016, July). The effects of social comparative feedback on grain size and confidence in eyewitness reports. Paper presented at the twenty-sixth annual conference of the European Association of Psychology and Law, Toulouse, France.

 Aleksandras Izotovas

Title: A memory based lie detection. Does memory enhancement affects only truthful statements after a delay?

Abstract: The quantity and specific characteristics of the reported details may indicate whether someone is credible or not, however, in some cases it may become very complicated to distinguish a liar from a truth-teller when merely one statement of each is taken into account. For instance, it was shown that certain personality aspects (e.g. fantasy proneness, psychopathy) or coaching the interviewee can be associated with the wealth of details in fabricated statement (Lee, Klavier, & Hart, 2008; Vrij, Akehurst, Soukara, & Bull, 2002). Therefore, specific changes in the recalled details of the experienced event over time will be investigated. In this study truth-tellers and liars will be interviewed twice. Different memory-enhancing techniques (context reinstatement, timeline, and sketch) will be given in the first interview. Truth-tellers and liars will be interviewed after two weeks again and their statements will be compared. It is expected that truth-tellers asked to reinstate the context will produce an equal decrease of retrieval of the different types of details (temporal, spatial and visual) while liars will recall them disproportionately after a two-week delay. In addition, after a delay truth-tellers but not liars will recall significantly more temporal details as a result of enhancement (timeline) of this type of details. Also, after a delay truth-tellers but not liars will recall significantly more spatial details after enhancement (sketch) of these details.

Izotovas, A., Vrij, A., & Hope, L. (2016, July). A memory based lie detection. Does memory enhancement affects only truthful statements after a delay? Poster presented at the twenty-sixth annual conference of the European Association of Psychology and Law, Toulouse, France.