Co-witnesses talk: A survey of eyewitness discussion

Abstract

The objective of this study was to obtain a quantitative measure of the discussion behaviour of real eyewitnesses. Undergraduate psychology students were given a questionnaire to determine if they had witnessed a serious event. Results from the questionnaire showed that the majority of respondents had witnessed a serious event at some point in their lives, and the majority of witnesses were not alone when they observed the event. Respondents who had experienced a serious event for which there was more than one witness present were invited to fill out a follow-up questionnaire. The follow-up study showed that when there is a co-witness present, most people (86%) report discussing the event with the co-witness. This is potentially problematic if the witnesses are contaminating one another's memories of the event. The results are discussed in terms of psychological research and policy implications.

Keywords:

• Eyewitness memory
• co-witness
• discussion
• memory conformity

Some of the findings from this paper have been presented at the Australian Psychological Society Conference in the Gold Coast, 2003 and at the Psychology and Law Conference in Edinburgh, 2003.