Using state of Awareness Judgements to Improve Eyewitness Confidence-Accuracy Judgements

Abstract

Two experiments with adults (Experiment 1) and 8-9 year olds (Experiment 2) are reported which examined the effect of the state of awareness at retrieval to eyewitness accuracy, confidence and the reliability of the confidence-accuracy (CA) association. The novelty of the research is the application of the remember/know model to facilitate CA resolution. The recall of central and peripheral details was assessed 24 hours after a video event was shown. Adults were more accurate and confident for all details they remembered than knew. Remembering improved CA resolution, but only for central details. Children’s accuracy, but not confidence in memory, was better for remember-based retrieval. Neither retrieval state nor detail assisted children to make reliable CA judgements. The research revealed first, the selective effect of remembering in CA resolution. Second, the components of remembering, such as context reinstatement and introspection, can overcome better central detail memory. Third, police interviewing techniques can potentially benefit from encouraging witnesses to reflect upon how they retrieve information and to report only what was personally experienced and remembered, than known.