Modern Psychological Studies
Periodical Title
Modern Psychological Studies
Volume
22
Number
1
Page Numbers
pages 7-14
Publisher
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Place of Publication
Chattanooga (Tenn.)
Date
2016
Abstract
People become witnesses to crimes every day. This study further investigated witness variables such as sex and age, as well as the personality trait conscientiousness, in relation to one’s ability to accurately remember a fictional crime scene. An experimental manipulation was also utilized; participants read an article claiming that either men or women were three times better at memory (a self-fulfilling prophecy effect). Then, they watched a short video of a crime and were asked to recall details. As expected, age and memory accuracy were negatively correlated (p < .001) and conscientiousness was positively correlated with memory accuracy (p = .046). There were no significant differences found among participants based on experimental conditions (p = .700), but a main effect of participant sex was marginally significant (p = .065), with women having slightly better memories than men. Studying how individual traits relate to memory accuracy can help determine factors that influence eyewitness scenarios and whether juries should rely on eyewitnesses. Implications, limitations, and future research are discussed.
Subject
Psychology
Discipline
Psychology
Document Type
article
DCMI Type
Text
Extent
8 leaves
Language
English
Call Number
BF1 .M63 v. 22 no. 1 2016
Rights
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Recommended Citation
Rich, Jamie and Goodfriend, Wind
(2016)
"Can you remember? Factors predicting memory accuracy in eyewitnesses,"
Modern Psychological Studies: Vol. 22:
No.
1, Article 3.
Available at:
https://scholar.utc.edu/mps/vol22/iss1/3
Department
Dept. of Psychology