Remembering a criminal conversation: Beyond eyewitness testimony

Abstract

Unlike the important body of work on eyewitness memory, little research has been done on the accuracy and completeness of "earwitness" memory for conversations. The present research examined the effects of mode of presentation (audiovisual/ auditory-only) on witnesses' free recall for utterances in a criminal conversation at different retention intervals (immediate/delayed) within a single experiment. Different forms of correct recall (verbatim/gist) of the verbal information as well as different types of errors (distortions/fabrications) were also examined. It was predicted that participants in the audiovisual modality would provide more correct information, and fewer errors than participants in the auditory-only modality. Participants' recall was predicted to be impaired over time, dropping to a greater extent after a delay in the auditory-only modality. Results confirmed these hypotheses. Interpretations of the overall findings are offered within the context of dual-coding theory, and within the theoretical frameworks of source monitoring and fuzzy-trace theory.

Language crimes and the cognitive interview: testing its efficacy in retrieving a conversational event

“…In other of our studies using a free-recall test, parallel findings concerning superior correct recall in the audiovisual modality compared to the auditory-only modality over time have been observed (Campos & Alonso-Quecuty, 2006). However, contrary to our findings when using a recognition memory test, participants had very poor verbatim recall for sentences (less than 1% correct).…”

“…The videotape was used in previous research (Campos, 2005;Campos & Alonso-Quecuty, 2006). In the film, both talkers were standing up during the conversation.…”

“…Alonso-Quecuty & Campos, 2003;Campos, 2005;Campos & Alonso-Quecuty 2005, 2006. In our previous research, we have addressed memory for criminal conversations both by recall and recognition tests.…”

“…When we have used a free-recall test, participants in the audiovisual modality were found to make fewer fabrications compared to participants in the auditory-only modality, according to findings when using a recognition test (Campos & Alonso-Quecuty, 2006). In addition, participants were found to make more fabrications (i.e.…”

Unfamiliar voice identification: Effect of post-event information on accuracy and voice ratings

“…Memories lacking perceptual quality are more prone to misinformation (Belli, 1989). Nevertheless, other studies have also found that auditory memory is relatively more distortable than visual memory (Campos & Andalonso-Quecuty, 2006). …”