The Power of the Spoken Word: Can Spoken-Recall Enhance Eyewitness Evidence?

Abstract

Research suggests that immediate, high-quality recall can consolidate witness memory for the event. However, these studies have employed written-recall, which presumes a level of literacy that some eyewitnesses may not possess. In the research presented here, we investigate the utility of spoken immediate recall. Participants viewed a crime video and completed an immediate spoken-recall, written-recall or no-recall response. Participants returned a week later and were exposed to both correct and incorrect post-event information before being interviewed. Immediate recall was comparable in the spoken and written conditions, but spoken-recall was faster and participants reported it was less effortful than written-recall. One week later, participants in the spoken and written conditions reported less misinformation than participants in the no recall condition. These results suggest that spoken immediate recall may be a viable alternative to written immediate recall.

Key words:

• eyewitness memory
• immediate recall
• police interview
• post-event information
• witness statement

Note

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by two Australian Research Council Linkage Grants (LP110100220 & LP0989719).

Notes

1. One individual in the spoken-recall condition reported 6 (of 8) misinformation items. This person also reported a very small number of items in the initial spoken-recall statement, suggesting little effort was put into participation and hence poor memory consolidation. When this outlier was included in the analysis, the effect of condition (F(2, 62) = 1.75, p = .183, partial η² = .053) and the contrasts were marginally non-significant (all p values > .069).