Effect of Modality in Earwitness Identification: Memory for Verbal and Nonverbal Auditory Stimuli Presented in Two Contexts

Abstract

Psycholegal researchers have largely ignored the relevance of nonverbal auditory information in earwitness memory, nor have they compared its retention with visual or verbal information. Memory of nonverbal auditory stimuli was investigated in two different contexts. In Experiment 1, participants recalled more sounds (i.e., nonverbal auditory stimuli) than the sounds' verbal labels. However, with a more ecologically valid method in Experiment 2, participants recalled more verbal stimuli in conjunction with visual information than they did nonverbal stimuli. Even after a 1-week delay, participants' retention of the verbal-visual combination was highest.