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If Anything Else Comes to Mind… Better Keep It to Yourself? Delayed Recall is Discrediting—Unjustifiably

  • Original Article
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Law and Human Behavior

Abstract

Inconsistencies in eyewitness accounts are perceived as indicative of inaccuracy and reduce the witnesses’ credibility. Reminiscence, the delayed recall of previously not recalled information, is generally interpreted as a type of inconsistency. Even though it does not necessarily involve the falsity of the statements, reminiscence presents a counterintuitive instance with mostly unknown reliability. Two studies empirically assessed the accuracy of reminiscent items after retention intervals of up to 1 week and contrasted them with peoples’ beliefs regarding their accuracy. In line with an implicit assumption of memory fading with the passage of time, delayed recall of previously unmentioned details was judged to be unreliable. In contrast, actual accuracy of reminiscent details was consistently high and even comparable to immediate recollections. Although participants generally underestimated accuracy, it was most pronounced in the case of reminiscence. The findings are discussed within the context of contemporary legal practice, such as jury instructions.

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Notes

  1. Note that in the case of continuous variable (e.g., height) and a lenient criterion of accuracy (e.g., ±5%) may include the case of two inconsistent recollections that are both correct (Ron Fisher, personal communication, October 31, 2010). However, as there was no such instance in my data, this possibility is left out for the sake of simplicity.

  2. The paper focuses on research that was conducted under controlled conditions and with adult samples, since age of participants was found to make a difference with respect to consistency and accuracy of reminiscent items (Peterson, Moores, & White, 2001).

  3. The materials and measures are available from the author.

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Acknowledgments

This research was partially supported by Grant Number GRK 772 by the German Research Foundation. I am grateful to Ronald Fisher, Susanne Haberstroh, Ulla Martens and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on an earlier version of this paper.

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  1. Faculty of Human Sciences, Institute of Psychology, University of Osnabrück, Seminarstr. 20, 49074, Osnabrück, Germany

    Aileen Oeberst

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Oeberst, A. If Anything Else Comes to Mind… Better Keep It to Yourself? Delayed Recall is Discrediting—Unjustifiably. Law Hum Behav (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10979-011-9282-4

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