Memory at the Sharp End: The Costs of Remembering With Others in Forensic Contexts

Abstract

In many applied contexts where accurate and reliable information informs operational decision-making, emergency response resource allocation, efficient investigation, judicial process, and, ultimately, the delivery of justice, the costs of unfettered conversational remembering can be high. To date, research has demonstrated that conversations between co-witnesses in the immediate aftermath of witnessed events and co-witness retellings of witnessed events often impair both the quality and quantity of information reported subsequently. Given the largely negative impact of conversational remembering on the recall of both individual witnesses and groups of witnesses in this context, this review explores the reasons why these costs occur, the conditions under which costs are exacerbated, and how, in practical terms, the costs can be reduced in order to maximize the accuracy and completeness of witness accounts.

Storytelling as Adaptive Collective Sensemaking

“…Memory conformity occurs when one person's memory report about an event can influence what another person subsequently claims to remember about the same event (Gabbert, Memon, & Wright, ) and may lead to mixing of individual episodic memories (based on first‐hand experience) with vicarious episodic memories (recollections of events that happened to other people; Pillemer, Steiner, Kuwabara, Thomsen, & Svob, ). Social memory biases in the transmission of information include memory conformity (Gabbert, Memon, & Allan, ; Hope & Gabbert, ; Jaeger, Lauris, Slemeczy, & Dobbins, ; Meade & Roediger, ; Roediger & McDermott, ), socially shared‐induced forgetting—increased forgetting of non‐mentioned information related to what is mentioned in conversation relative to unrelated information that is not mentioned in conversation (Cuc, Koppel, & Hirst, ; Stone, Barnier, Sutton, & Hirst, , ; Stone & Wang, ) — or the preferential retention of stereotype‐consistent information over repeated transmission (Allport & Postman, ; Bangerter, ; Lyons & Kashima, , ; Maswood & Rajaram, ). Social memory biases may lead to the emergence of collective memories (Hirst, Yamashiro, & Coman, ).…”

Editors’ Introduction: Remembering With Others: Conversational Dynamics and Mnemonic Outcomes

“…Conversational remembering may lead to the creation of false memories in listeners (Roediger, Meade, & Bergman, ). An extension of Loftus, Miller, and Burns's () seminal work demonstrating the ability to implant false memories in individuals through the presentation of misinformation, social contagion occurs when speakers implant false memories in listeners (Meade & Roediger, ; Roediger et al., ; see also Maswood & Rajaram, ; Hope & Gabbert, for reviews in this topic). For example, Roediger et al.…”

Storytelling as adaptive collective sensemaking

“…Memory conformity occurs when one person's memory report about an event can influence what another person subsequently claims to remember about the same event (Gabbert, Memon, & Wright, 2006) and may lead to mixing of individual episodic memories (based on first-hand experience) with vicarious episodic memories (recollections of events that happened to other people; Pillemer, Steiner, Kuwabara, Thomsen, & Svob, 2015). Social memory biases in the transmission of information include memory conformity (Gabbert, Memon, & Allan, 2003;Hope & Gabbert, 2018;Jaeger, Lauris, Slemeczy, & Dobbins, 2012;Meade & Roediger, 2002;Roediger & McDermott, 2011), socially shared-induced forgetting-increased forgetting of non-mentioned information related to what is mentioned in conversation relative to unrelated information that is not mentioned in conversation (Cuc, Koppel, & Hirst, 2007;Stone, Barnier, Sutton, & Hirst, 2010, 2013Stone & Wang, 2018) -or the preferential retention of stereotype-consistent information over repeated transmission (Allport & Postman, 1947;Bangerter, 2000b;Lyons & Kashima, 2003, 2006Maswood & Rajaram, 2018). Social memory biases may lead to the emergence of collective memories (Hirst, Yamashiro, & Coman, 2018).…”