Emotion and Eyewitness Memory

Edelstein, Robin S.; Alexander, Kristen Weede; Goodman, Gail S.; Newton, Jeremy W.

doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195158564.003.0010

Cited by 12 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…The legal system is dependent not only on the accuracy of eyewitness accounts, but also on the accuracy of jurors' memory of eyewitness testimony. Although considerable research exists on the effects of emotion on eyewitness memory (Christianson, 1992; Edelstein, Alexander, Goodman, & Newton, 2004), relatively few studies have examined how eyewitness recounting of emotional events affects listeners' memory accuracy. Moreover, because it is likely that the emotional tone of the eyewitness account and the account's relevance to the listener affect later recollection, it is also important to investigate their influence on memory.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Remembrance of Eyewitness Testimony: Effects of Emotional Content, Self‐Relevance, and Emotional Tone¹

Block

Greenberg

Goodman

2009

J Applied Social Pyschol

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This experiment concerned the effects of emotional content, self‐relevance, and emotional tone of testimony on memory. Eyewitness accounts of 4 events were constructed that systematically differed in emotionality and self‐relevance. The testimony, captured on videotape, was expressed with or without negative emotion. After viewing one of the videotaped accounts, participants were administered cued‐recall and recognition memory tests. Significant main effects indicated that participants best remembered testimony that was emotional in content, self‐relevant, and negatively expressed. Although emotional content and self‐relevance interacted to affect state anxiety, the latter did not mediate memory effects. Overall, significant gender differences in state anxiety but not memory emerged. Implications for understanding the influence of emotion on juror memory are discussed.

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confidence: 99%

Remembrance of Eyewitness Testimony: Effects of Emotional Content, Self‐Relevance, and Emotional Tone¹

Block

Greenberg

Goodman

2009

J Applied Social Pyschol

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“…Some authors emphasize the attentional orientation function of the arousing stimuli (Deffenbacher et al, 2004), and others emphasize the defensive function of emotional reactions (Christianson, 1992;Christianson, 2014;Kim, Park, & Lee, 2014). Nevertheless, most of the literature points out that witnesses have an improved performance for central aspects of emotional negative events, and an inferior performance for peripheral details of the event (Edelstein, Alexander, Goodman, & Newton, 2004;Reisberg & Heuer, 2004. Although definitions of central and peripheral details are usually confounded in the literature, in most studies central information is described as elements directly associated with the source of the emotional stress (e.g.…”

Section: Estimator Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eyewitnesses memory for faces in actual criminal cases: An archival analysis of positive facial composites

Saraiva

Castilho²,

Nogueira³

et al. 2017

Estud. psicol. (Natal)

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Facial composites are crucial in the criminal justice system. In this archival study, we investigated the assumption that the success of facial composites depends partly on variables related to the crime, which either impairs or facilitates mnemonic processes. When a facial composite is successful in taking an offender to court it is sometimes archived as a positive facial composite, including a photo of the culprit and information about the crime. A total of 88 positive facial composites were investigated. The accuracy of facial composites was tested as a function of five variables related to the crime: type of crime, presence of weapon, retention interval, exposure duration, and disguise. Participants judged the resemblance of the perpetrators' photo with their correspondent facial composite. The results pointed out that only exposure duration was significantly associated with facial composites accuracy. Possible implications and future directions for research using archived facial composites are discussed.

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“…The emotional conditions of individuals are some of the most studied factors for their influence on the ability to recognize faces (Edelstein et al, 2004). In particular, the impact of a witness's level of stress has been extensively addressed, considering the high stress that criminal acts, and subsequent police processes can generate (Dobson and Markham, 1992;Deffenbacher et al, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification Performance During Quarantine by COVID-19 Pandemic: Influence of Emotional Variables and Sleep Quality

et al. 2021

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The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major disruptions in people’s lives around the globe. Sleep habits and emotional balance have been disturbed in a way that could be comparable to the havoc caused by a deep personal crisis or a traumatic experience. This unfortunate situation provides a unique context in which to study the impact of these imbalances on cognitive processes. In particular, the field of eyewitness science could benefit from these conditions, since they are also often present in crime victims, but can only be generated in the laboratory up to a certain ethical and practical limit. For several decades, eyewitness studies have tried to discover what variables affect people’s ability to properly recognize faces. However, the disparity of experimental designs and the limitations of laboratory work could be contributing to the lack of consensus around several factors, such as sleep, anxiety, and depression. Therefore, the possibility of observing the influence of these agents in natural contexts could shed light on this discussion. Here, we perform simple and repeated lineups with witnesses of mock-crime, considering the conditions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, which to some extent allow emulating the deterioration in general well-being that often afflicts crime victims. For this, 72 participants completed symptomatology scales, and watched a video portraying a staged violent episode. Subsequently, they gave testimony and participated in two lineups, in which we manipulated the presence/absence of the perpetrator, to recreate critical scenarios for the appearance of false recognitions. We found an increase in recognition errors in those individuals who did not have access to the perpetrator during the Initial lineup. Additionally, the conditions of the pandemic appear to have adversely affected the ability to witness and accurately perform lineups. These results reaffirm the need to move toward the standardization of research practices and methods for assessing testimonial evidence, especially in relation to the results of the lineups. Considering the degree of fallibility of these processes can lead to a reduction of wrongful convictions.

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Emotion and Eyewitness Memory

Cited by 12 publications

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Remembrance of Eyewitness Testimony: Effects of Emotional Content, Self‐Relevance, and Emotional Tone¹

Remembrance of Eyewitness Testimony: Effects of Emotional Content, Self‐Relevance, and Emotional Tone¹

Eyewitnesses memory for faces in actual criminal cases: An archival analysis of positive facial composites

Identification Performance During Quarantine by COVID-19 Pandemic: Influence of Emotional Variables and Sleep Quality

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Emotion and Eyewitness Memory

Cited by 12 publications

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Remembrance of Eyewitness Testimony: Effects of Emotional Content, Self‐Relevance, and Emotional Tone1

Remembrance of Eyewitness Testimony: Effects of Emotional Content, Self‐Relevance, and Emotional Tone1

Eyewitnesses memory for faces in actual criminal cases: An archival analysis of positive facial composites

Identification Performance During Quarantine by COVID-19 Pandemic: Influence of Emotional Variables and Sleep Quality

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Remembrance of Eyewitness Testimony: Effects of Emotional Content, Self‐Relevance, and Emotional Tone¹

Remembrance of Eyewitness Testimony: Effects of Emotional Content, Self‐Relevance, and Emotional Tone¹