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THURSDAY, JULY
3RD
Auditorium KEYNOTE 8:45 - 9:30
a.m.
False events of memory ELIZABETH LOFTUS
Chair: Dan Wright
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Auditorium
SYMPOSIA 9:30 - 10:45 a.m.
Focusing on the internal in memories of trauma
Chair: ROBYN FIVUSH
Contact: psyrf@emory.edu
Keywords: Autobiographical memory, Narrative production and
comprehension.
Much of our autobiographical memory focuses on what
Bruner has called "the landscape of consciousness," our
thoughts and feelings about our life experiences. Because trauma
often creates a problem for processing and comprehending experience,
many theorists have proposed that traumatic memory may focus on
the internal to a greater extent than non-traumatic memory. The
papers in this symposium explore this proposal from developmental
and longitudinal perspectives. The emerging pattern of results provides
a framework for understanding how traumatic memories may be similar
and different from non-traumatic memories, and how traumatic memories
may change over time.
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Memories of positive and negative events
Jennifer Bohanek
Whereas most memory research has focused on the accuracy of memories
for particular events, the focus of this study was to compare the
content and evaluation of women's memories of events differing by
both emotional valence and intensity. Forty-four women (age 18-21)
were instructed to write about an intensely negative, moderately
negative, intensely positive, and moderately positive event including
both the facts of what happened, as well as their thoughts and feelings
surrounding the event, and they also subjectively rated their memories
for characteristics such as vividness and significance. The narratives
were coded for 5 categories of internal state language: positive
and negative emotion, as well as words reflecting cognition, insight,
and causation. The narratives were also coded for a global level
of coherence. Overall, emotional valence was related to the content
of the women's narratives, and emotional intensity was related to
the subjective ratings of the memories. Negative narratives contained
more negative emotion and cognitive processing words than positive
narratives, and positive narratives contained more positive emotion
words than negative narratives. Interestingly, there was little
relation between the objective content of the narratives and the
women's subjective ratings of their memory experiences. Women rated
intensely emotional events as more frequently talked/thought about,
significant, unique, emotional, and vivid than moderately emotional
events, and negative narratives were rated as more emotional than
positive narratives. Intensely negative narratives were the longest,
and intensely positive narratives were the most coherent. These
results have important implications for flashbulb memories, narrative
research in general, methodological issues (such as the validity
of subjective memory ratings), and the quality of traumatic memories.
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Narratives of 9/11
Robyn Fivush, Valerie Edwards
Several theories of traumatic memory highlight the narrowing of
attention, and specifically the focus on internal states, that may
occur during the experience and recollection of trauma. It has been
further suggested that this focus on the internal may dissipate
over time, as the individual begins to process and cope with the
trauma. In order to examine this possibility more systematically,
we compared three groups of undergraduate students' narratives of
the 9/11 terrorist attacks over time: students who knew someone
who was killed, students who lived in the New York area but did
not know someone who was killed, and students who did not live in
New York or know a victim. Students filled out a battery of stress
and anxiety measures, and then wrote narratives of 9/11 for 5 days
in a row within 6 weeks of the event, and then completed the measures
again and wrote one narrative 6 months later. We predicted that
those directly involved would experience higher stress, and would
include more words indicative of emotional and cognitive processing
than those less directly involved and, further that this group would
show a less steep decrease in stress and in the use of these kinds
of internal state words over time. Inspection of a subset of the
transcribed data support these predictions. Ongoing analyses will
include the full sample, as well as relating the cognitive and emotional
content of the narratives to individual ratings of stress and well-being
both immediately and over time.
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Communicating emotions and cognitions about traumatic and nontraumatic
Patricia J. Bauer
A question of major significance is whether memories of traumatic
and nontraumatic events differ quantitatively and/or qualitatively.
Because traumatic experiences engender such strong emotions, as
well as cognitive reflection and evaluation, language about internal
states is a prime domain for address of this question. Examination
of use of internal states language in the context of mother-child
conversations has the added benefit of informing as to whether the
process of socialization of internal states language in autobiographical
narrative is different for traumatic and nontraumatic events. We
examined mother-child conversations about a devastating tornado
and about two nontraumatic events to determine whether there are
(a) differences in mother's and/or children's use of internal states
language in narratives about the two types of events, and (b) similarities
in mothers' and children's use of internal states language. Four
months after the tornado, with conversational length controlled,
there was no evidence of differential use of internal states language
as a function of event, for mothers or children. Six months later
(10 months after the tornado), older children's narratives about
the tornado were more saturated with internal states language. There
was evidence of internalization by children of their mothers' emotion
language use: For both traumatic and nontraumatic events, there
were correlations between maternal use of emotion language at Session
1 and children's use of emotion language at Session 2. The findings
suggest differential socialization across internal states categories,
but that the process of socialization of emotion language is similar
for traumatic and nontraumatic events.
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Stressing memory: Long-term relations among children's stress,
recall, and psychological outcome following Hurricane Andrew
Jessica McDermott Sales, Robyn Fivush, Janat Parker, Lorraine
Bahrick
Hundreds of children were affected by Hurricane Andrew, one of
the most destructive natural disasters to occur in the United States.
This study examined relations among individual level of stress,
content of children's recall of Hurricane Andrew, and long term
psychological functioning. Three to 4-year-old children were interviewed
within a few months following the storm, and again six years later.
The adult literature suggests that the emotional and cognitive content
of one's memories has a significant impact on one's well-being.
Thus interviews were coded to examine the emotional and cognitive
content of children's recall. Additionally, children's stress levels
were assessed by multiple measurements collected at either one or
both interviews. Children remembered the hurricane in vivid detail,
and they continued to be emotionally affected by the hurricane even
years later. At the initial interviews, children who were more stressed
included less positive emotion, fewer cognitive processing words,
provided less information overall and less free recall in their
narratives. In contrast, children who were less stressed included
more cognitive processing words and recalled more information. When
re-interviewed 6 years later, the children who had been more stressed
initially included more negative emotion and cognitive processing
words, but provided less information during free recall. Children
who had initially used more positive emotion words and recalled
more information displayed lower stress scores 6 years later. Implications
for children's remembering and coping with traumatic events will
be discussed.
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Discussant: Lynne Baker-Ward
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KCF7
SYMPOSIA 9:30 - 10:45 a.m.
Memory Conformity: How do people influence each other's memories?
Chair: FIONA GABBERT
Contact: f.gabbert@abdn.ac.uk
Keywords: General memory, Social cognition
Five papers investigate how one's knowledge of another person's
memory can influence one's own memory. Each paper within the symposium
approaches this topic from a different perspective, from exploring
the effects of discussion between eyewitnesses, to questioning how
and why memory conformity might occur. To meet the growing interest
in this area of research, the symposium brings together a varied
collection of studies each addressing a common theme.
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Co-witness contamination: The effects of witness discussion
on subsequent recall and recognition
Helen Paterson, Richard Kemp
This presentation focuses on the effects of co-witness information
on the accuracy and comprehensiveness of eyewitness memory. Co-witness
information is defined as information that one eyewitness conveys
to another eyewitness about an event that they both observed. It
is standard practice for police and other legal personnel to attempt
to prevent eyewitnesses from discussing the event with each other,
however it is clear that witnesses do often talk to each other about
the event. Experiments are described which examine the effects of
post event information encountered through discussion with other
witnesses. In each study, participants were shown a crime video
and then asked to discuss the video in groups (some of which received
experimentally induced misinformation). Finally, participants were
asked to give their individual accounts of what happened. It was
found that there are both advantages and disadvantages of co-witness
discussion, depending on the methodology employed. Furthermore,
some evidence suggests that it may be possible to distinguish between
'real' memory and information obtained from a co-witness. These
results are discussed in terms of methodological considerations,
theory, and policy implications.
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The effects of discussion and prior acquaintance on the recall
of contradictory details of a simulated crime.
Samantha Foster, James Ost
This study investigated the effects of discussion and self-reported
level of acquaintance on the recall of contradictory elements of
a videotaped, staged theft. The experiment employed a 2 (pre-discussion
recall vs. post-discussion recall) x 4 (stranger/friend/partner/individual)
mixed design. The dependant variables were the (a) proportion of
correct responses, (b) mean confidence and (c) testimonial validity.
Fifty-nine participants (37 females and 22 males) were recruited.
Participants individually watched a videotape of a staged theft,
completed a multiple-choice questionnaire concerning details of
the crime and provided confidence ratings for those details. Participants
then either thought about the video for 10 minutes (no discussion
condition), or discussed the video for 10 minutes in a dyad (discussion
condition). Critically, in the discussion condition, each member
of the dyad saw a slightly different version of the videotaped theft
in which five details had been deliberately altered. Further, to
examine the possible effects of familiarity with the other person
in the dyad, participants in the discussion condition were asked
to self-rate their level of acquaintance. All participants were
then asked individually to complete the multiple-choice questionnaire
for a second time. Twelve between-within subjects ANOVAs were conducted.
For details of the video that were seen the same by both members
of the dyad, discussion had little positive or negative effect on
individual recall and testimonial validity. For details of the video
that had been seen differently by each member of the dyad, discussion
negatively effected both individual recall and testimonial validity.
Contrary to expectation, there were no differences as a function
of participants' self-rated level of acquaintance. Implications
will be discussed.
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Asymmetric Effects in Memory Conformity
Daniel B. Wright, Sorcha Mathews
Two experiments show that people's recognition memory for words
and pictures of automobiles can be affected by what another person
says. Participants viewed either a set of words or automobiles with
a confederate, and then they were tested using an old/new recognition
test. The confederate responded first. Both experiments showed similar
patterns. The memory conformity effects, where the participant responded
with what the confederate said, were of similar magnitudes in the
studies. For both studies, there the effect was not the same for
items previously seen and unseen. The effect was larger for convincing
someone that a previously unseen item was present, than to make
them say that an item which they had seen was not present. We discuss
this asymmetry in relation to social and cognitive explanations
for the memory conformity effect. We also varied the frequency of
the words (high and low frequency, and non-words) and how unique/memorable
the automobiles were. These had different levels of accuracy, but
did not vary in their susceptibility to conformity effects.
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Investigating Eyewitness Conformity Effects for a Simulated
Crime
Fiona Gabbert, Amina Memon, Kevin Allan, Daniel B. Wright
In everyday life it is natural for people to discuss their shared
experiences. However, because memories are not infallible, sometimes
one person will introduce inaccurate information into the conversation.
Our past research has shown that this information can be incorporated
into the other person's memory, and subsequently reported as their
own recall of the event. This 'conformity' effect is stronger than
the effect of more commonly used experimental methods of misleading
eyewitnesses, such as post-event narratives.
Our current research investigates factors underlying memory conformity.
We address forensically relevant questions, asking whether memory
conformity is an inevitable result of discussion, or whether it
only occurs in certain interactions. Participants were tested in
pairs. Each member watched a different version of the same event.
They later discussed the event together before individually providing
a written summary of what they had seen. A battery of individual
difference measures were used to explore whether memory conformity
was related to particular personality characteristics. In addition
the naturally occurring discussions were audio-taped, transcribed
and analysed. Our most striking finding was that the witness initiating
the discussion was most likely to influence the other witness's
memory report. In other words, the witness initiating the discussion
was the most resistant to influence even when their memory was disputed
by their co-witness.
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Memory distortions as a function of social influence and meta-cognitive
knowledge
Eva Walther
It is asked under which conditions individuals fall prey to the
influence of a group of others when they are uncertain as to whether
an event has actually occurred. We suggested that judgments of others
have an impact on memory reports only if other sources of information
(e.g., metacognitive knowledge) are not sufficiently applicable
to resolve uncertainty. Using a standard recognition paradigm, we
examined in two experiments how individuals were influenced by the
judgments of a bogus group when they were asked about stimuli that
had never been presented. Following traditional research on social
influence (cf. Asch, 1951; Festinger, 1954; Sherif, 1936), it is
assumed that social influence on memory is similar to the influence
that others exert on behaviors and attitudes, with three variables
determining the impact of a group: uncertainty, group size, and
the presence of dissenters. In two experimental studies we investigated
how false memory reports provided by anonymous group members affect
individuals' recognition. Participants were presented with a series
of salient and non-salient objects and recognition memory was subsequently
assessed for presented and non-presented stimuli. In this recognition
test, participants were confronted with (in)correct responses from
bogus group members. The findings indicate that the bogus answers
influenced memory reports only in the absence of a clear recollection
and if the stimulus was not judged to be particularly memorable.
Moreover, we found no evidence that motivational influences affected
participants' judgments. However, the influence of the bogus group
decreased with the presence of dissenters who broke the unanimity
of the group, and it increased with higher uncertainty.
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KCF8
SYMPOSIA 9:30 - 10:45 a.m.
Detection of malingering
Chairs: MARKO JELICIC, HARALD MERCKELBACH
Contact: m.jelicic@psychology.unimaas.nl
Keywords: Malingering, Reasoning and decision making
People involved in legal matters sometimes simulate memory and
other cognitive impairments. Such malingering may take place in
order to obtain financial compensation for alleged brain damage
or to avoid imprisonment by claiming insanity. This symposium will
deal with different aspects of the detection of malingering. First,
methodological issues of research on identifying malingerers will
be discussed. The following three presentations will deal with the
usefulness of different malingering tests and questionnaires. The
last presentation will discuss the influence of coaching on the
detection of malingering with special malingering tests.
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From north to south and back - evaluating different tests of
"lowered effort" with simulators and patients
Jonathan K. Foster
Malingering tests (or tests of `lowered effort`) can be evaluated
in two main contexts: a) in simulators who have been instructed
to `fake bad` and b) in patients who are suspected of exaggerating
their cognitive symptoms. In the case of a), simulators are often
psychology students who (it is often assumed) may possess a relatively
sophisticated knowledge of memory and memory impairment. Performance
of these simulators on tests of malingering is typically compared
with the memory performance of a demographically comparable control
group of individuals who are instructed to perform to the best of
their ability. Tests of lowered effort are evaluated with respect
to their sensitivity and specificity in determining (via a cut-off
score) which participants belong to each of these two `simulator`
and `best effort`groups. In the case of b) patients who are suspected
of exaggerating their cognitive symptoms, it is of course more problematic
to determine whether or not the individual is in fact `faking bad`
without reference to cut-off scores which have typically been established
through alternative means. The focus of our research to date has
been to evaluate (in a comparative manner)novel and more established
tests of lowered effort in simulators (and controls) rather than
in patients, but we are now beginning to apply these tests in litigating
versus non-litigating patients who have sustained an alleged brain
injury. Relevant findings concerning sensitivity, specificity and
other relevant test characteristics will be discussed.
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Symptom validity testing: Clinical applications and implications
for research
Ben Schmand
Malingering tests have been designed for application in forensic
settings. Originally, their purpose was to test the validity of
cognitive symptoms in the context of litigation, workmen's compensation
claims, and the like. However, these tests may also be applied very
fruitfully in clinical settings. In cases with cognitive complaints
of unclear aetiology, such as those in chronic fatigue syndrome,
late whiplash, other chronic pain syndromes, and chronic toxic encephalopathy
('painter's disease'), malingering tests may serve to separate 'bona
fide' patients from somatisers and aggravators. After removing the
noise caused by these latter groups, there remains very little evidence
for cognitive disorders in these syndromes. When applied in psychiatric
syndromes, such as depression and schizophrenia, malingering tests
may serve as a methodological check of the effort invested by the
patients during cognitive evaluation. Examples of these clinical
applications from the literature and from own research will be reviewed.
Some of the most surprising findings will be discussed, as well
as their implications for research in cognitive neuropsychiatry.
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Diagnostic accuracy of the SIMS in detecting malingering of
psychopathological symptoms
Harald Merckelbach
The Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology (SIMS) is
a self-report measure that intends to screen for malingering tendencies.
The 75 yes-no items of the SIMS tap commonly malingered conditions,
like psychosis and amnestic disorder. The items describe symptoms
in such way that they are plausible to naïve people, but highly
suspicious to specialists (e.g., "I have difficulty remembering
the day of the week").In this presentation, we address the
psychometric properties of a Dutch translation of the SIMS when
administered to diverse samples of undergraduate psychology students
and psychiatric inpatients. In the normal samples, some participants
were instructed to simulate symptoms, while others were asked to
respond honestly. Findings show that our SIMS version possesses
good test-retest reliability and internal consistency. Also, simulation
findings indicate that undergraduate students instructed to simulate
pathology display higher SIMS scores than either normal controls
or psychiatric inpatients. Data pooled over several samples (N=
298) yielded sensitivity, specificity, and Positive Predictive Power
(PPP) rates that were all relatively high (≥0.90). However,
we also found robust correlations ( r's > 0.50) between SIMS
scores, depression, and trait anxiety. The precise meaning of this
overlap is unclear: does it mean that people with high SIMS scores
also overendorse symptoms on scales that are thought to tap real
psychopathology or does it mean that depressive and anxious people
have a tendency to exaggerate their symptoms? All in all, our findings
provide a basis for cautious optimism regarding the usefulness of
the SIMS as a screening tool for malingering.
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"Supernormality" in psychopathy: Development of a new instrument
Maaike Cima
It has often been suggested that psychopaths are successful malingerers.
This assumes that psychopathic individuals have a tendency to display
one particular type of deception (i.e., exaggeration). However,
it may well be the case that the link between psychopathy and deceptive
behaviour is strongly affected by the context. For instance, the
psychopathic patient in a mental institution might try to deny psychopathology
in an attempt to make a healthy impression on his evaluators. The
term 'supernormality' refers to the tendency to systematically deny
the presence of common symptoms (e.g., intrusive thoughts). A previous
study described the psychometric qualities of a 37 item self-report
measure of supernormality (i.e., Supernormality Scale; SS). Results
showed that the accuracy parameters for the SS (i.e., sensitivity
and specificity) were rather poor. Although, the findings indicated
that the SS was a useful research tool for measuring feigning of
healthy behaviour, it certainly needed improvement. In a follow-up
study, the SS was revised (i.e., Supernormality Scale-Revised; SS-R).
This 72 item questionnaire was administered to normal individuals,
noncriminal psychiatric patients, nonpsychiatric delinquents, and
a heterogeneous sample of forensic patients. In the forensic patient
sample, SS-R scores were correlated with psychopathic personality
characteristics as measured with the Psychopathic Personality Inventory
(PPI). In addition, as a way to establish the validity of the SS-R,
a thought suppression paradigm was conducted within two different
samples of sexual offenders. We predicted that high scores of faking
good on the SS-R would go hand in hand with a suspicious low frequency
of target thoughts during thought suppression. Results of this study
will be discussed.
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Effects of coaching on instruments developed to detect malingering
of memory impairments
Marko Jelicic
Faking of memory and other cognitive impairments occurs in people
seeking financial compensation for alleged brain damage. Because
clinicians have great difficulty identifying malingering of memory
impairments, special instruments have been developed to detect malingering.
Most of these instruments are based on the assumption that malingerers
do not know that genuine patients exhibit relatively normal performance
on some tests and questionnaires. On these instruments malingerers
show lower performance or more symptoms than real patients. It has
been suggested in the literature that coaching, i.e. providing information
about brain damage, would render special malinger tests invalid.We
studied the effects of coaching on two instruments used to identify
malingering of memory impairments, the Amsterdam Short Term Memory
test (ASTM) and the Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology
(SIMS). These two instruments were administered to three groups
of undergraduate students. The control group consisted of 30 participants
asked to perform honestly, a naïve malinger group consisting
of 30 participants asked to simulate memory impairments brought
about by brain damage, and a informed malinger group comprising
30 participants who were given some information about brain damage
and then asked to simulate memory impairments. The ASTM and the
SIMS were able to identify both naïve and informed malingers
(sensitivity rates > .70). Control participants were also identified
as non-malingerers (specificity rates > .90). Our findings suggest
that the ASTM and the SIMS are relatively immune to the effects
of coaching.
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COFFEE BREAK 10:45 - 11:05 a.m.
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Auditorium
SYMPOSIA 11:05 a.m. - 12:20 p.m.
When we change autobiographical belief, do we also
change memory?
Chair: GIULIANA MAZZONI
Contact: mazzongi@shu.edu
Keywords: Autobiographical memory, False memories, Suggestibility.
"We investigated the role of fluency and familiarity in the formation
of false memories. Subjects completed a Life Events Inventory in
which one-half of the items contained scrambled key words (e.g.,
""broke a dnwoiw playing ball""). Subjects rated
whether these life events had occurred in their childhood before
the age of 10. In a series of experiments, we show how the act of
unscrambling a key word in an event description increases subjects`
confidence that the event occurred not only in their own childhood
but also in the childhood of others. In another line of studies
involving incidental and deliberate exposure to key words (subjects
first count vowels in or vividly imagine key words, e.g., ""window,""
that later appear in an event description, e.g., ""broke
a window playing ball""), we failed to increase subjects`
confidence. These results indicate that.prior exposure to words
and unscrambling words can, in some cases, produce fluency that
leads to a feeling of familiarity. When the source of the fluency
is obscure, people will search for potential reasons (sources) to
explain the fluency. In the absence of an obvious or reasonable
source, people misattribute the fluency to their own childhood.
The act of correctly unscrambling an anagram can produce a surge
of fluency, akin to an ""aha"" experience, that
people fail to attribute to the act of unscrambling. Instead, they
misattribute their feeling of familiarity to their own childhood.
These findings suggest that false memories can arise, in part, through
the misattribution of familiarity.
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Unscrambling one's past
Daniel M. Bernstein, Ryan Godfrey, Elizabeth F. Loftus
Recently, Wade et al. (2002) showed that 50% of adult subjects
developed false memories when presented with doctored photos of
a fictitious childhood event. We adapted this doctored photo method
to investigate the effects of plausibility and childhood amnesia
on children's false memories. Six and 10-year old children were
interviewed three times over the course of a week. At each interview
children were presented with four photos, two real and two false.
We varied two factors. First, we varied the plausibility of the
false events (plausible, implausible). Second, we varied the age
at which the event purportedly occurred (age 2 or 6). Children were
asked to describe what they could remember about the event, and
then rate "how much" they could remember and "how
sure" they were that the event had happened. Six year olds
reported high belief but did not provide a great deal of information
about the events. For the 10-year old children, those who were recalling
events from age 2 were more likely to produce false reports than
those recalling events from age 6. These results suggest that childhood
amnesia may play a role in the development of false memories.
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The effect of false information and imagination on false beliefs
and false memories
Stefanie Sharman, Giuliana Mazzoni, Irving Kirsch, Maryanne Garry
Subjects completed a Life Events Inventory in which one-half of
the items contained scrambled key words (e.g., "broke a dnwoiw
playing ball"). Subjects were asked to determine whether these
life events had occurred in their childhood before the age of 10.
In a series of experiments, we show how the act of unscrambling
a key word in an event description increases subjects` confidence
that the event personally occurred. In another line of studies involving
incidental and deliberate exposure to key words (subjects count
vowels in or vividly imagine key words), we failed to increase subjects`
confidence. We discuss the role of familiarity misattribution in
the formation of false memories. Specifically, we discuss how fluency
can be misattributed to one`s past by altering the availability
of potential sources that could explain the fluency.
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Measuring autobiographical memories and beliefs
Alan Scoboria, Giuliana Mazzoni, Irving Kirsch, Mark Relya
Research has shown that giving people false suggestions can make
them recall events that never happened (eg, Loftus & Pickrell,
1995). Research has also shown that asking people to imagine fictitious
events makes them more confident that those events really happened
(Garry, Manning, Loftus, & Sherman, 1996). We examined the combined
and separate effects of false suggestions and imagination on the
creation of false beliefs and false memories, using a three-stage
procedure. First, participants provided belief and memory ratings
for a list of childhood events. Second, participants (a) were told
that the false haircut event happened to them; (b) imagined the
haircut; (c) were both told it had happened and imagined it, or
(d) were in the control condition. Third, all participants completed
the belief and memory ratings again.
We found that only false information produced false beliefs: participants
who were told the event happened became more confident that it really
had. Imagination enhanced memories of the false haircut event, but
only for participants who were not told that the event had happened.
Our results have both theoretical and practical implications. They
confirm predictions from a theoretical model (Mazzoni & Kirsch,
in press); they suggest that imagination alone is powerful enough
to create false memories, and they reveal the ease with which memories
for events that never happened can be implanted.
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Inferring probable constituents: Belief versus memory in the
'memory wars.'
James Ost
In the false memory literature, measures of one construct are sometimes
used as stand-ins for related constructs. Measures of autobiographical
belief are often used as a measure of autobiographical memory, and
script knowledge has been used to infer the plausibility of an event.
The present study tested these assumptions by investigating the
relationship between plausibility, belief, memory, and script knowledge
for events. 685 undergraduate students completed measures of plausibility,
belief and memory, and script descriptions for a series of 10 hypothetical
childhood events. Results indicate that the constructs of plausibility,
belief and memory are distinct, and correlate with one another in
a predictable manner. Script knowledge did not correlate with any
of the constructs.
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A right royal road to false childhood memory
Deryn Strange, Rachel Sutherland, Maryanne Garry, Harlene Hayne
A fundamental disagreement exists over the findings of laboratory
studies of false memory. Some researchers claim these provide impressive
demonstrations of false memory, whilst others use exactly the same
findings to support the argument that such memories are extremely
difficult to 'implant'. There is nevertheless agreement that 'memory'
should be the central issue. But is this really the case? This paper
will review the disagreements concerning false memory in the published
literature, as well as presenting the findings from our own research
with retractors (individuals who have repudiated their earlier claims
of abuse). Analysis, both of the literature, and of retractors'
accounts, indicates that 'memory' should not be the sole focus of
the false/recovered memory debate. Examination of retractors' accounts
suggests that, in some cases, a belief is, in itself a sufficient
condition for making an accusation of abuse. There are also similarities
between retractors' accounts of coming to make accusations of abuse,
and those of individuals who have come to confess falsely in police
interrogations. It would seem that what we believe about the past
may, in some cases, be more important than what we remember about
it.
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KCF7
SYMPOSIA 11:05 a.m. - 12:20 p.m.
True and false memories for events. The effects of emotional
arousal
Chairs: LYNN HULSE, AMINA MEMON
Contact: l.hulse@abdn.ac.uk
Keywords: Emotion, General memory.
The relationship between emotional arousal and memory is complex.
Accordingly, the papers in this symposium investigate this relationship
using various interesting approaches. The first paper measures the
effects of physiological arousal on event recall and identification
accuracy for a sequential lineup. The second paper investigates
the association between arousal (state and trait anxiety), source
identification and ability to detect misleading details, while the
third focuses on the role of emotion in the creation of false memories
using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm. The final paper examines
the effect of visually- versus thematically-induced emotion on memory
for central and peripheral details. A discussion, led by Paula Hertel,
follows these four papers.
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Affecting memories: Emotional arousal and eyewitness testimony
Lynn Hulse, Amina Memon, Kevin Allan
At present, there are three somewhat conflicting main theories
about the effects of emotional arousal on memory for events. One
theory suggests that emotional arousal impairs memory, another suggests
that it enhances memory, and the third proposes that it has selective
effects on memory for different types of details. The current study
aimed to explore the relationship between emotional arousal and
memory by applying both physiological and behavioural measures of
arousal, recall and recognition to an eyewitness paradigm. Emotional
arousal is somewhat inherent in crime events due to their often
violent or upsetting nature. Moreover, the reliability and accuracy
of eyewitness memory is crucial to help the police and courts uphold
justice. Thus, we presented sixty participants (university undergraduates)
with either an emotionally arousing video event depicting a crime,
or a relatively neutral event. Memory for event details was then
assessed by performance on a written cued-recall measure and a sequential
lineup task, which included a picture of the target from the witnessed
event. Physiological activity (skin conductance, heart rate) was
recorded while participants viewed the event stimuli and lineup.
In addition, participants were asked to complete self-report questionnaires
about emotions they experienced and, finally, Spielberger's (1983)
Trait Anxiety Scale. The results of this study are discussed in
the light of the aforementioned theories of emotion and memory and
provide insight into whether self-report and physiological measures
of arousal predict memory for event details and accuracy of identification.
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The effect of state and trait anxiety on suggestibility in a
source identification paradigm
Anne M. Ridley, Brian R. Clifford
Source identification (ID) tests as used by Zaragoza and her colleagues
(e.g. Mitchell & Zaragoza, 1996) provide a more stringent method
for testing suggestibility effects than the standard suggestibility
paradigm because they reduce response bias and experimental demand
characteristics. They also provide a way of differentiating between
reductions in suggestibility due to two very different processes:
correct source identification, and the non-recognition or forgetting
of misleading information. Being able to discriminate between these
processes is particularly important when investigating individual
differences and suggestibility. In this study using 56 undergraduates,
we investigated how state and trait anxiety (as measured by the
STAI; Spielberger, Gorsuch, Luschene, Vagg & Jacobs, 1983) affect
the ability to identify correctly the source of misleading post-event
information. Multiple regression was used to analyse the data. The
results showed that state anxiety was negatively related to suggestibility
(p <.01). This relationship was moderated by trait anxiety. The
strongest relationship between state anxiety and suggestibility
was found when trait anxiety was high. Non-recognition or forgetting
of post-event information was positively related to trait anxiety.
A source identification task cannot take place if post-event information
is not recognised. It was found that the exclusion of unrecognised
misleading items from the analyses increased the size of the effect
of state anxiety on suggestibility. The key finding that state anxiety
is associated with reduced suggestibility will be discussed in relation
to the literature on individual differences and suggestibility,
source monitoring, and anxiety and cognition.
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Bad experiences, bad memory?
Joanne Sangster, Kevin Allan
The effect of emotion on memory is a complex one. To try and establish
how and why emotion can exert a disruptive affect on memory it is
necessary to investigate paradigms in which emotional stimuli results
in false memory. Therefore, the underlying processes can be uncovered
and an understanding of what influences accurate memory recall can
be achieved. There has been a vast amount of research into false
memory for words using the DRM paradigm (Roediger & McDermott,
1995). However, there has been a serious lack of research into how
emotional content of stimuli in the DRM paradigm can lead to differences
in false memory. This research focuses on the use of categorised
emotional pictures to establish how the effect of categorization
and, more importantly, the effect of emotion disrupts accurate recognition
of previously experienced items as well as false alarms to novel
items. To date, this paradigm has discovered that there are no differences
in the false alarm rates for different emotions (positive, negative
and neutral), whereas there are significant differences between
baseline false memory and false memory for categorised items. These
results seem to suggest that the influence of emotion may only occur
when certain types of memory processes are involved (e.g. source
memory) and not when responses are highly influenced by perceptual
and conceptual similarity. False alarming in this modified version
of the DRM paradigm may be solely related to the converging characteristics
of the pictures.
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The contrast between thematically- and visually-induced emotion:
A broader view of memory narrowing
Cara Laney, Friderike Heuer, Daniel Reisberg
Previous research suggests a multiplicity of effects of emotional
arousal on memory. First, memory is better for emotionally arousing
events than for matched emotionally neutral events. Second, attention
seems to be narrowed in emotionally arousing circumstances, so that
emotion specifically enhances memory for the "centre"
of the to-be-remembered event, but at the expense of that event`s
"periphery." We argue, however, that these previous studies
may not be generalizable to all emotional memories. In particular,
the memory narrowing shown in these studies may be an artifact of
how emotion was induced in these earlier procedures through the
use of an attention-grabbing emotional stimulus (e.g., the sight
of a bloody wound). We report data showing that this "visually-induced
arousal" is atypical for emotional events outside of the laboratory;
the vast majority of naturally-occurring emotional memories instead
involve "thematically-induced arousal." We then report
two laboratory studies, asking how thematically-arousing events
are remembered. In both studies, arousal was produced through participants`
empathy with the themes of the to-be-remembered materials, and not
through the introduction of shocking or arousing visual stimuli.
Participants` physiological and subjective levels of arousal were
assessed and recognition memory was tested for both gist and details
of the two stimulus sets. In both studies, participants in the arousal
groups had better memories overall, suggesting that the enhanced
memory is a feature of all emotional events. However, participants
showed no indication of narrowed memories, relative to those in
the neutral groups, suggesting that the narrowing phenomenon is
not a product of arousal.
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Discussant: Paula Hertel
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KCF 8
SYMPOSIA 11:05 a.m. - 12:20 p.m.
Eyewitness identification: Witness confidence, identification
accuracy and investigator beliefs
Chair: NEIL BREWER
Contact: neil.brewer@flinders.edu.au
Keywords: Confidence-accuracy relationship, Eyewitness testimony,
Face perception and identification.
Given the important role played by eyewitness identifications in
criminal investigations, researchers have focused on the diagnosticity
of independent markers of eyewitness identification accuracy. One
influential marker within the justice system has been eyewitness
confidence. With strong empirical support for the confidence-accuracy
relationship not forthcoming psychologists remain pessimistic about
its diagnostic value. In this symposium we present new research
on the confidence-accuracy relationship. This research (a) highlights
new aspects of the relationship in eyewitness identification and
face recognition, (b) explores the source of confidence inflation
produced by post-identification feedback, and (c) shows how identifications
shape investigators? confidence and actions.
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Confidence-accuracy calibration in eyewitness identification
Neil Brewer, Gary L. Wells
There is a now a substantial body of empirical research on the
confidence-accuracy relation in eyewitness identification which
demonstrates weak or, at best, modest relations between the two
variables, thus suggesting that eyewitness confidence should be
of little diagnostic value. Recent research in our laboratory and
elsewhere with large samples, while confirming the typically modest
confidence-accuracy correlation, has also used a procedure known
as confidence-accuracy calibration to demonstrate impressive confidence-accuracy
relations, at least under certain experimental conditions. Here
we report a new study in which participants (N = 1,200) viewed a
simulated crime and attempted identifications of two targets from
separate 8-person photoarrays under one of several experimental
conditions: (1) unbiased vs biased lineup instructions (i.e., witnesses
warned or not warned about the possible absence of the offender/target
from the photoarray); (2) high vs low similarity of photoarray foils
to the target; and (3) target-present vs target-absent array. The
typical modest confidence-accuracy correlations were detected across
all experimental conditions. There were sizable variations in identification
response patterns across the different identification stimuli and
experimental conditions. Variations in the closeness of confidence-accuracy
calibration were examined across these conditions and, importantly,
in response to different base rates of target-absent lineups.
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Confidence-accuracy calibration in face recognition: Effects
of judgment type vs. task difficulty
Nathan Weber, Neil Brewer
Differences between sequential and simultaneous lineups are largely
attributed to the processing strategies encouraged by the two different
lineups. Specifically, simultaneous lineups are posited to encourage
relative judgment strategies, whereas sequential lineups predispose
witnesses to the use of absolute judgment strategies. Following
Weber and Brewer (in press), who demonstrated differences in confidence-accuracy
calibration between the two judgment types, we report two experiments
that investigate the processes underlying relative and absolute
face recognition judgments. Specifically, we examine the difference
in confidence-accuracy calibration between absolute and relative
judgments across different levels of task difficulty. Both experiments
employed a face recognition paradigm where participants viewed a
series of faces in a study phase then, after completing a distracter
task, made recognition judgments about a series of individual faces
(absolute judgments) or pairs of faces (relative judgments). In
experiment 1 the difficulty of the recognition task was varied by
manipulating the exposure duration of the faces in the study phase.
In experiment 2 the difficulty of the recognition task was varied
by manipulating the exposure duration of faces in the test phase.
Results from both experiments indicated that participants tended
to become more overconfident (or less underconfident) with increasing
task difficulty. Further, equivalent calibration was observed for
both judgment types in situations of equivalent task difficulty
suggesting that the calibration differences observed previously
were likely due to differences in difficulty between absolute and
relative judgments not to differences in decision making processes.
Implications for face recognition memory models and eyewitness identification
are discussed.
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The effects of intervening confidence assessments on the eyewitness
post-identification feedback effect
Carolyn Semmler, Neil Brewer
Several studies have established that feedback to eyewitnesses
indicating the accuracy of their identification decision is likely
to influence their judgments of the subjective probability that
they made the correct decision. Despite the robust nature of the
post-identification feedback effect, we have little knowledge of
the mechanisms underlying the effect. This study explored the possibility
that the extent of the post-identification feedback effect is related
to the ease or extent to which confidence cues are accessed. Specifically,
we examined the impact on the post-identification feedback effect
of requiring participants first to make an identification, then
to make a series of confidence judgments in relation to subsequent
identifications, and finally to make a confidence judgment about
the original identification. Thus, the experimental conditions varied
the number and type of judgments made between the first identification
and the eventual delivery of feedback, with participants given confirming
or no feedback just prior to making their confidence estimate for
the initial identification. We examined whether participants who
made multiple identifications and confidence judgments either (a)
might have had more difficulty accessing relevant confidence cues
for the initial identification and hence were more susceptible to
the effects of post-identification feedback than participants who
only accessed confidence cues associated with a single identification,
or (b) might have been more likely to access confidence cues for
the initial identification and to be less dependent on externally
provided cues. The findings are discussed in terms of their impact
on theories of post-identification confidence inflation.
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Investigating witnesses' influence on investigators: A new method
and some preliminary findings
Leora C. Dahl, D. Stephen Lindsay, C.A. Elizabeth Brimacombe
Eyewitness identifications often play a key role in police investigations
and prosecutions. Inspired by practical concerns of wrongful imprisonment,
psychologists have studied eyewitness identifications for nearly
a century. Eyewitnesses? lineup performance is an important issue,
but this area of research neglects another important player in the
forensic drama: The investigator who collects the evidence. There
is little research on how investigators conduct lineup tests, and
even less is known about how investigators weigh identification
evidence in the context of other evidence pertaining to the crime.
To address such issues, we have developed a new method in which
subject/investigators interview witnesses, search a computer database
of potential culprits to find a suspect, and rate the probability
that the suspect they chose is the culprit. Thereafter, investigators
administer a lineup (that includes their chosen suspect) to the
witnesses. Finally, investigators re-rate their confidence in the
suspect?s guilt. We speculate that investigators tend to be greatly
swayed by eyewitness identification testimony (even when it is inaccurate,
and even when it conflicts with more solid grounds for decisions).
In the studies we report here, the ?investigators? were university
undergraduates and the witness was a confederate, who either identified
the investigator?s suspect, identified a similar-looking lineup
member, identified a dissimilar-looking lineup member, or indicated
that the perpetrator was not present in the lineup. The studies
revealed that an eyewitness? identification decision greatly influences
investigators? confidence in their choice of suspect, confidence
in the witness, and decision to arrest the suspect.
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LUNCH 12:20 - 1:20 p.m.
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Auditorium
SYMPOSIA 1:20 - 2:35 p.m
Face composite production by eyewitnesses:
New technologies and developments
Chairs: DAWN MCQUISTON, COLIN TREDOUX
Contact: dmcquist@utep.edu
Keywords: Eyewitness testimony, Face perception and identification.
Crime witnesses are often asked by police to create visual likenesses
of faces. This is most frequently achieved with the assistance of
technical devices or specialized software (e.g., IdentiKit). The
use of these composite technologies is explored in the current symposium
for its theoretical and applied implications. Topics will include
(a) the development of alternative technologies that use `eigenfaces`
and genetic algorithms to improve composite production; (b) alternative
construction techniques and their influence on cross-race composite
production; (c) decision criterion and its impact on composite production,
and (d) the use of composite faces to improve subsequent identification
performance. Finally, Professor Malpass will act as discussant for
the symposium, raising important theoretical and applied issues
in this domain.
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Parallel approaches to composite production: recognition rather
than recall
Peter Hancock
Traditional approaches to the production of a facial likeness of
a crimina suspect are very feature-based: "What did the nose
look like?", "Are these the right eyes?", etc. Much
psychological research indicates that people do not recognise faces
in that way; we perceive the whole face rather than individual features.
It is rather hard to describe someone`s face, and much easier (though
still error-prone) to say whether or not you saw a given face. The
question is how best to extract from someone`s memory what the face
looked like. This research describes two new approaches to producing
a facial likeness that draw on this recognition ability. EvoFIT
is a completely new approach to the problem, using a principal components
analysis of faces as the underlying representation. Eighteen randomly
generated faces, matching the general description of the target,
are generated and the witness selects several that look like the
target. The system combines these in an evolutionary algorithm to
create a new set for selection. The process continues, gradually
getting closer to the target. The second approach is a parallel
interface to PROfit, a standard feature-based composite system.
However, rather than working serially through the selected set of
noses, six at a time are presented for comparison. Counter to our
intuitions, neither system works particularly well in practice,
with EvoFIT only equal to current systems and the parallel PROfit
slightly worse. We are currently investigating reasons for this
outcome, one possibility being that users are simply confused by
the number of faces that they are shown. These two systems will
be discussed, along with possible reasons for the performance.
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Investigating the own-race bias in composite production
Dawn McQuiston, Roy S. Malpass
Empirical research has demonstrated that people are experts at
recognizing own-race faces versus faces of another, less familiar
race (Meissner & Brigham, 2001). This expertise has been shown
to be associated with between-feature (configural) facial processing,
while novices rely on more featural information (e.g., Diamond &
Carey, 1986). How these theories of face processing extend to the
recall of facial information is largely unknown. Interestingly,
the configural-featural hypothesis would suggest a difference in
the accuracy/quality of recalled information by novices versus experts,
but in the opposite direction of what is observed with the own-race
bias in face recognition. The purpose of this research was to investigate
the role of perceptual expertise in face recall and improve our
understanding of the configural-featural theory of face processing
underlying the own-race bias. Participants were shown a target face
for 60 sec. and then completed a distractor task for 5 min. Following
instructional manipulations designed to encourage configural or
featural processing, participants were asked to generate a facial
composite of the target face using Faces 3.0. It was predicted that
(1) composite quality would be better for those based on cross-race
faces than own-race faces, and (2) instructional manipulations would
affect composite quality. Results indicate a floor effect in terms
of composite quality. The theoretical basis of these results will
be discussed in terms of constrasting processes between recall and
recognition. The limitations of composite production technologies
and the implications of these results for law enforcement practices
will also be discussed.
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The influence of instructional bias on the generation of facial
composites
Christina Sendina, Christian A. Meissner
Previous research has demonstrated a verbal overshadowing effect
in face identification -- the phenomenon that verbally describing
a face later impairs identification of the face from a photo lineup
(Schooler & Engstler-Schooler, 1990). Recent empirical research
(MacLin, Tapscott, & Malpass, in press; Meissner, in press;
Meissner, Brigham, & Kelley, 2001) and a meta-analytic review
of previous studies (Meissner & Brigham, 2001) has indicated
that "instructional bias" on the description task may
be partly responsible for the overshadowing effects observed in
eyewitness memory. Interestingly, the verbal overshadowing phenomenon
has not been directly extended to the creation of facial composites,
although an analysis across previous studies provided some evidence
for verbal facilitation (Meissner & Brigham, 2001). The purpose
of the present study was to assess the influence of verbally describing
a face on the subsequent generation of a facial composite. Participants
were shown a target face for 5 sec and subsequently completed a
distractor task for 5 min. Participants were then asked either to
describe the facial characteristics of the target, or to engage
in a "no description" control condition by continuing
with the distractor task. Instructional bias was manipulated in
the description conditions as in previous studies by either heightening
or lowering participants` criterion of recall on the description
task. Following the description task, all participants were asked
to generate a facial composite of the target face using Faces 3.0.
It was predicted that the instructional bias manipulation would
influence the quality of composites generated such that heightening
participants` criterion on the description task would improve quality
of the reproduction when compared with those participants whose
output criterion was lowered, and results confirm this prediction.
The theoretical basis of this effect will be discussed, and procedures
for the collection of verbal descriptions from witnesses will be
suggested.
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Optimizing facial composite hit-rates
Graham Pike, Nicola Brace, Richard Kemp, Sally Kynan
The current paper examines how best to present facial composites
in order to maximize the chances of obtaining a positive identification.
It has been standard practice in the UK to obtain just a single
facial composite per investigation and to only release the image
if the witness rated the likeness above a pre-set threshold. Several
field studies, employing live staged crimes and trained police artists,
were conducted to determine whether these procedures could be improved.
Initial results revealed that witness ratings are not an accurate
indicator of the quality of the composite. In addition, the presentation
of multiple composites of the suspect led to a higher hit rate than
presenting any one image, even the best likeness. This suggests
that the people viewing the composites were able to make use of
the variation between the different images in order to build a more
accurate description of the suspect's face. Studies were also conducted
which looked at what textual information should be included along
with the facial image. These showed that the inclusion of information
to do with the time and place of the crime improved hit-rate, but
that the inclusion of a description of the suspect resulted in a
lower hit-rate. One explanation of this is that verbal descriptions
tend to be more inaccurate than the visual description contained
in the facial composite image itself. The results of a final study
revealed that constructing a facial composite does not seem to interfere
with the witness' performance at an identification procedure
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Testing featural and holistic composite technologies under different
methods of recall
Bhavesh Prag & Colin Tredoux
In previous presentations, we reported the development and testing
of a holistic face composite system. The system (ID) uses 'eigentexture'
and 'eigenshape' models to interactively construct likenesses of
faces, and results thus far have been promising. In the present
research we tested ID against a software program widely used by
US and South African (SA) police (FACES), under three recall conditions:
in view, a standard SA police interview, and a Cognitive Interview.
One group of participants was exposed to one of four targets during
a tutorial session, and required to reconstruct the faces from memory
between one and two weeks later. A second group reconstructed the
same faces with their photographs in full view. A third group of
participants evaluated the composites in a range of tasks. Results
suggest that the FACES program gives better reconstructions when
the target is in full view, but that the ID program gives better
reconstructions from memory.
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KCF7
SYMPOSIA 1:20 - 2:35 p.m.
Questioning children
Chairs: HELEN WESTCOTT, ROBYN HOLLIDAY
Contact: H.L.Westcott@open.ac.uk
Keywords: Eyewitness testimony, Interviewing children, Suggestibility.
This symposium comprises four papers and a discussant exploring
how best to elicit and understand information from children. Two
experimental studies re-examine the misinformation effect. The first
paper reviews children's difficulties in distinguishing between
correct and incorrect responses to misleading and unbiased questions.
The second paper queries to what extent compliance, rather than
deception or secrecy, contributes to suggestibility effects. A third
paper explores the content of children's verbal descriptions of
unfamiliar faces in relation to constructing facial composites (e.g.
E-fit). The final paper examines insights and issues associated
with the application of different coding protocols to a sample of
transcripts from suspected child sexual abuse interviews.
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Social and metacognitive processes in children's suggestibility:
Is there evidence for a general overconfidence effect?
Claudia Roebers, Pauline Howie
Two studies, conducted in Australia and Germany, investigated metacognitive
monitoring in children's event memory, as reflected in their ability
to give higher confidence judgments after correct than after incorrect
responses. Eight- and 10- year olds answered either unbiased or
strongly misleading questions about a video they had viewed two
weeks earlier, and rated their confidence that each answer was correct,
on a 3-point scale. In Study 1, the format of all key questions
was strongly misleading for half the children and unbiased for the
remaining children, while in Study 2, each child received a mixture
of misleading and unbiased questions. Both studies revealed developmental
progression in the ability to appropriately differentiate confidence
judgments. In Study 1, 8-year-olds who received predominantly unbiased
questions performed relatively well when rating confidence, but
predominantly misleading questions produced serious monitoring impairments,
reflected in higher confidence after incorrect than correct responses.
This pattern was present in both countries. Study 2 explored whether
the overconfidence in Study 1 was attributable to social factors
associated with "bombardment" with misleading questions.
With misleading questions now interspersed among unbiased questions,
the younger children no longer showed an overconfidence effect.
However, the absence of a difference between their confidence in
correct and incorrect responses to misleading questions, combined
with an appropriate difference in unbiased questions, indicates
that they were still experiencing difficulty differentiating adequately
between correct and incorrect responses to misleading questions.
The results are discussed in terms of social as well as metacognitive
factors influencing children's eyewitness testimony.
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Re-examining the misinformation effect: Differentiating between
secrecy, deception, suggestion and compliance in children
Clare Wilson, Martine Powell
The current study hypothesized that compliance and suggestibility
would be positively correlated and both would be negatively correlated
with deception and secrecy (that is, as the cognitive sophistication
to lie and keep secrets develops, the willingness to agree with
others decreases). It was further hypothesized a secret may be more
resistant to suggestibility (as the child must mentally rehearse
that the information is a secret and therefore have a stronger memory
for that information). Two hundred children (aged 5 - 6 and 9-10)
took part, in pairs, in a dance lesson. At the end of the lesson
the instructor took the children`s photo and then asked the children
not to tell "her boss" that she had used the camera and
taken their photo (this was the secret). Immediately following the
lesson, each child was asked to perform a deceptive task that was
later rated. One week later the children were interviewed, either
using highly suggestive questions followed by a multiple choice
version of the same questions (either as the original test or modified
tests outlined by McCloskey & Zaragoza, 1985) or a control test
which contained multiple choice questions but no suggestive questions.
The children were all finally given the opportunity to re-read each
question and change any answer they thought was incorrect. Strong
correlations were found as predicted. However, younger children
did not show a stronger memory for the secret. There is a strong
compliancy element to suggestibility and as children age they are
more able to correct this compliancy tendency.
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Children's verbal descriptions of unfamiliar composite faces
Carina Paine, Nicky Brace, Graham Pike, Helen Westcott
When the identity of an offender is unknown in a criminal investigation,
witnesses are often asked to produce a facial description or a composite
image with a police operator. However, spontaneous facial descriptions
tend to be limited. Therefore, operators may use some form of cued
recall, or list of adjectives, for eliciting a description. The
majority of these lists are based on research which has collated
adults' terms for describing faces. Although research has shown
that children have difficulty understanding the meaning of adults`
words and may use their own terms, to date there is no equivalent
list of children's terms. Thus operators must interpret and "translate"
children's descriptions. The current study therefore aimed to: Investigate
the content of children`s verbal descriptions of an unfamiliar face
and; establish the language and terms used by children. The study
also investigated the quantity of children`s verbal descriptions
of an unfamiliar face and determined: the effect of prompting children
in a featural and a configural way. Thirty 6-, 8-, and 10-year olds
were each shown two facial composite images. Children were asked
to provide a free narrative, followed by a prompted description
for each composite image. Children were finally asked to compare
the two composite images. The results will include information about
which facial features children provided descriptions of; examples
of the terms children used the effect of describing two faces; and
the effect of prompting on children descriptions. Implications for
future research and practice developments in composite construction
with children will be highlighted.
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Questioning coding: An analysis of different approaches to coding
suspected child sexual abuse interviews
Clare Wilson, Helen Westcott, Sharon Casey, Sally Kynan
Interview analysis is often conducted to find ways of improving
the quality of investigation interviews. Three main types of interview
analysis can be identified. First, Question Type Analysis focuses
on the questions that result in the most accurate information. Second,
Content Analysis focuses on the quality of the information asked
for and obtained. It can further be split in two: semantic content
analysis and lexical content analysis. Third, Story Narrative Analysis
focuses on the overall quality of the statement obtained during
the interview. How an interview is coded predicts what findings
can be made, for example, in Question Type analysis it is commonly
reported that open-ended questions are the most reliable. However,
in Content Analysis, a passive voice open-ended question (eg "Tell
me how you were touched by him") is less successful than the
active voice (eg "Tell me how he touched you") in obtaining
a complete account. The purpose of this study was to examine the
different coding schemes and to integrate them, where possible,
into the most helpful combination of factors that will allow the
most complete and useful account of the complex dynamics of an interview.
The present study coded the police transcripts of 20 interviews
for suspected child sexual abuse. Each transcript was coded four
ways using popular coding protocols for each of the four analysis
types: Question type, Semantic Content, Lexical Content and Story
Narrative. The results will discuss the usefulness of multiple analysis
and associated issues and insights. The paper will review implications
for both the coding of interviews and for the improvement of interviewing
techniques.
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Discussant: Robyn Holliday
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KCF8
PAPER SESSION 1:20 - 2:35 p.m.
Traumatic Memory
Chair: RHIANNON ELLIS
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Consistency of memory for traumatic events
A. E. van Giezen, Ella Arensman, Philip Spinhoven
Consistency of memory for traumatic events: A prospective and experimental
study among victims of recent (i.e., within the last 2 months) physical
or sexual assault, occurring outside the context of ongoing domestic
violence.
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"I know exactly what I did on September 11": Retrieval-based
and retrieval-independent criteria in judgments of memories for
shocking events
Gerald Echterhoff
Experiments conducted in Germany and in New York City investigated
the criteria people use to judge how accurately they can remember
their encounter with the September-11th news. An ease-of-retrieval
heuristic was used only by participants in Germany six months later,
when the public relevance of September 11th had declined.
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Altering traumatic memories
Daniel M. Bernstein, Veronika Nourkova, Elizabeth Loftus
We falsely suggested to Russian participants that they had seen
a wounded animal during one of two terrorist attacks (1999 Moscow
or 2001 World Trade Center). While 12.5% of the Moscow group believed
the suggestion, none of the WTC group did. These findings demonstrate
the experimental malleability of traumatic memories.
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Korsakoff patients' memories of September 11, 2001
Ingrid Candel, Marco Jelicic, Harold Merckelbach, Arie Wester
This study investigated whether Korsakoff patients are capable
of remembering a highly emotional event and to what extent they
form flashbulb memories of such an event. On two test occasions,
Korsakoff patietns and healthy control participants were interviewed
about their memories for September 11, 2001.
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Evidence of a specific impairment of inhibition for trauma-related
material in patients with PTSD
Tim Brennen, Ragnhild Dybdahl, Jasminka Jukic, Almasa Kapidzic
Patients with war-induced PTSD and a control group performed a
directed forgetting task with positive, neutral and war-related
words. The PTSD group recalled more to-be-forgotten war-related
words, but fewer in every other condition, including to-be-remembered
war-related words. This task provides a laboratory model of flashbacks
experienced by PTSD patients.
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COFFEE BREAK 2:35 - 2:55 p.m.
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Auditorium
SYMPOSIA 2:55 - 4:10 p.m.
Forensic factors in facial composites
Chair: CHARLIE FROWD
Contact: cdf1@stir.ac.uk
Keywords: Face perception and identification, Face composites.
This symposium connects research projects relevant to the construction
of facial composites. The presentations focus on a range of factors
likely to affect or predict composite quality. These broadly cluster
into witness factors (cross race effect, verbal overshadowing and
verbal description) and target factors (target delay, target salience
and construction view).
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Investing the cross-race effect in facial composite construction
Richard I Kemp, Jennifer S Baldwin
It is easier to recognise same-race than other-race faces. This
reliable finding is known as the cross race effect (CRE) and is
usually demonstrated using a recognition memory paradigm. This paper
reports the results of experiments designed to investigate the CRE
using a facial composite construction task.
The cross-race effect (CRE) describes the finding that it is easier
to recognise same-race than other-race faces. Recent meta-analytic
reviews have shown this to be a reliable effect, and it is likely
that the effect is a significant factor in a number of the false
convictions recently uncovered by DNA analysis. Despite this high
degree of theoretical and practical importance, the underlying causes
of the CRE are not well understood. To date most studies of the
CRE have employed a recognition-memory paradigm to measure recognition
of same-race and other-race faces. However, some real forensic tasks
require witnesses to recall a face. One such task is facial composite
construction, where a witnesses works with an operator using a facial
composite system to construct a facial likeness of a target. It
is not clear whether tasks such as this will also show a CRE. This
paper reports the results of experiments designed to determine if
facial composite construction is prone to the CRE.
Participants were "Asian" and "Caucasian" male
and female students who watched a short video of an unfamiliar Asian
or Caucasian face. These participant witnesses were then interviewed
by a trained interviewer who worked with them using a computerised
composite construction system (E-Fit) to construct a likeness of
the target seen on video. These likenesses were then rated by a
different group of Asian and Caucasian judges. Results show little
evidence for a CRE in composite construction. Possible reasons for
this finding and its practical and theoretical implications are
discussed.
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Composites and the Verbal Overshadowing Effect
Derek Carson
A number of recent studies have demonstrated that when participants
are asked to provide a verbal description of a previously seen face
their subsequent recognition of that face can be hindered (Schooler
& Engstler-Schooler, 1990; Finger & Pezdek, 1999). This
phenomenon has been termed the verbal overshadowing effect. Not
all attempts to replicate these studies have been successful and
Meissner, Brigham and Kelley (2001) argue that the type of instruction
given to participants determines the likelihood of finding the effect.
When participants were instructed to lower their criterion levels
and report everything, the effect was a strong one. Investigators
when conducting cognitive interviews with witnesses currently utilise
a similar type of instruction.
Experiment One adopts Finger and Pezdek's experimental design to
investigate if verbal overshadowing can occur when witnesses are
asked to construct facial composites from memory. Twenty participants
were asked to construct E-fits from memory. Ten followed current
police procedures: they described a previously seen face and immediately
constructed the composite. Ten had a delay of 24 hours between the
description phase and the construction phase. Subsequent tests have
shown that composites constructed in the delay condition were more
likely to be named than their non-delay counterparts. They were
also more likely to be chosen in a 2AFC test when the task was to
decide which composite was most visually similar to a recent photograph
of the target face. A second experiment investigates whether the
benefit shown for the composites in the delay condition is likely
to be evidence of a release from verbal overshadowing.
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Multiple Technique Composites: the problem of facial salience
Charlie Frowd
Recent research has found that target distinctiveness exerts a
strong influence on the identification of facial composites and
appears to interact with the production technique employed. In this
work, E-FIT and PROfit composites were better than artist-composites
when salience was high, the reverse was found when salience was
low. There is a significant body of research indicating the importance
of facial salience in face perception. Recent work has suggested
that composites of target faces previously-rated as distinctive
are much better identified than composites of more average-looking
faces. This notion appears to apply not only to a number of current
UK composite systems (E-FIT, PROfit and Artist Sketches) but also
outdated (Photofit) and developmental (EvoFIT) systems.
This research involved facial stimuli with a large difference in
rated distinctiveness. A replication of the work has now been carried
out with a less distinctive target set (and a more realistic delay
to interview). Whereas E-FIT and PROfit composites were named about
20% on average, composites of the new target set were named at floor
level. In contrast, the sketch artist's composites were consistently
named for both sets (about 10%). Findings also highlight an advantage
for the current systems over Photofit, and the new EvoFIT system
over the other electronic variants. Overall, the work implies that
knowledge of an assailant's distinctiveness is valuable for police
work, enabling the selection of appropriate techniques and an estimate
of composite quality.
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Composites at different views
Hayley Ness
Many modern composite systems only allow construction of a two-dimensional
full-face image. However, a witness will have viewed a three-dimensional
moving face. As research (e.g. Thomson and Tulving, 1970) has indicated
that successful retrieval is dependent on how well retrieval cues
correlate with those in the original encoded experience, it is possible
that this two-dimensional image will not contain enough information
to ensure successful recall. Similarly, research has shown an advantage
for three-quarter views in unfamiliar face recognition (e.g. Krouse,
1981; Logie, Baddeley & Woodhead, 1987; Bruce, Valentine &
Baddeley, 1987). These studies found that when three-quarter views
were shown at presentation, recognition memory was superior at test,
compared to full-face and profile views.
We are currently investigating the effectiveness of PROfit's new
female database, developed by ABM UK, which allows participants
to construct a composite at a three-quarter view. In our initial
investigation we found that three-quarter view composites were identified
as well as full-face images, but not better. However, participants
were exposed to all views of the target face for equal amounts of
time. The current experiment has attempted to examine the encoding
specificity principle in more detail. Participants were asked to
view a 30-second video clip, however this time the exposure phase
was split into 3 conditions (three-quarter-view, full-face view
or all views). Participants were asked to view one clip of one target.
They were then asked to construct composites in both a three-quarter
and full-face view. It is expected that identification performance
will be superior when the view in the exposure and construction
phase match.
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The effect of delay on facial composites
Stephanie Plews
UK working practices state that a witness description of an offender
should be given within 24-36 hours. This study investigated whether
there would be a significant difference in recognition between facial
composites made 2 days or one week after viewing a target. Only
images that were high scoring on a familiarity scale were used as
targets and participants were screened so only those unfamiliar
with the targets constructed composites. Naming rates suggest that
there is no detriment for recognition of a composite between these
two delay intervals.
This study was undertaken to assess the effects of witness' ability
to successfully recall the facial appearance of, and produce a recognisable
facial composite of, a target image of a white male. Six 'target'
famous male images were selected and rated for familiarity and distinctiveness.
Only images that were high scoring on a familiarity scale were used
in the experiment. Participants were screened so that those who
were unfamiliar with the 'target' images constructed composites
using the standard cognitive interview technique employed by police
officers. Half of the composites were constructed following a two-day
delay and half after a week delay from viewing of the target. A
further group of participants were asked to attempt to name the
composites and likeness ratings were also collected as to the similarity
between the target image and the resulting composite. The number
of composites that were correctly recognised was low overall and
preliminary results show no significant difference between a delay
of two days and one week.
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KCF7
SYMPOSIA 2:55 - 4:10 p.m.
The role of social and emotional factors
on children's eyewitness testimony
Chair: LAUREN R. SHAPIRO
Contact: shapirol@emporia.edu
Keywords: Cognitive development, Eyewitness testimony.
Researchers have shown that testimony by child witnesses is affected
by social pressure, interrogation techniques, and emotionality of
the event. False information presented before or after the witnessed
event is incorporated into reports. Consequently, even when children
are the only witnesses, they are rarely asked to testify in criminal
proceedings. The first presentation examines the extent to which
peer conversations can affect children`s memories for earlier experienced
events. The second presentation explores how the combination of
pre-event character stereotyping and postevent suggestions influenced
recall accuracy over time. The third presentation focuses on whether
emotionally negative events are recalled better than neutral events
over time.
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Making memories: How peer conversations can lead to false reports
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