Providing eyewitnesses with initial retrieval support: what works at immediate and subsequent recall?

Abstract

The effect of retrieval support on eyewitness recall was investigated in two experiments. Based on the outshining hypothesis, Experiment 1 tested whether retrieval support enhances witness performance (compared to free recall) especially when witnessing conditions are suboptimal (e.g., because witnesses were distracted during the crime). Eighty-eight participants watched a videotaped crime with either full or divided attention and subsequently received retrieval support with the Self-Administered Interview© (SAI) or completed a free recall (FR). One week later (Time 2 – T2) all participants completed a second FR. Unexpectedly, retrieval support did not lead to better memory performance than FR under divided attention conditions, suggesting that retrieval support is not effective to overcome adverse effects of divided attention. Moreover, presence of retrieval support at Time 1 (T1) had no effect on memory performance at T2. Experiment 2 (N = 81) tested the hypothesis that these T2-results were due to a reporting issue undermining the memory-preserving effect of T1-retrieval support by manipulating retrieval support (SAI vs. FR) at T1 and T2. As expected, T1-retrieval support led to increased accuracy at T2. Thus, the beneficial value of T1-retrieval support seems greatest with high-quality T2-interviews. Interviewers should consider this when planning a subsequent interview.

Keywords:

• eyewitness testimony
• outshining hypothesis
• self-administered interview
• divided attention
• retrieval support

Acknowledgments

We thank Jessica Arnet, Nils Hagemann, Annick Janssen, Stéphanie Kerkhofs, Brenda Nuñez-Gonzalez, Chiel Slegers, Tamara Sujew, and Brenda Urban for their help with data collection and Henry Otgaar for his valuable comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. We are also grateful to Timm M. Kuhl for preparing the data for analyses. This research was supported by a PhD scholarship from Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (German National Academic Foundation) awarded to the first author.

Notes

1. The distributions of the number of incorrect details and accuracy of T1 and the number of correct and incorrect details, and accuracy of T2 were significantly skewed. However, the results of the analyses with the transformed variables yielded the same results. Therefore, we will report the analyses with the untransformed variables.

2. The distribution of the number of incorrect details at T2 was significantly skewed. However, the results of the analyses with the transformed variable yielded the same results. Therefore, we will report the analyses with the untransformed variable.