Psychology

Witness memory and suggestibility

Including research on: Eyewitness testimony (Lorraine Hope, James Ost, Hartmut Blank); Earwitness testimony (Julie Cherryman); Eyewitness identification (James Sauer, Hartmut Blank, Lorraine Hope); Child witnesses (Lucy Akehurst, Julie Cherryman); Tools and interventions for improving witness performance (Lorraine Hope, James Sauer); Eyewitness metacognition (Hartmut Blank, James Ost, Lorraine Hope, James Sauer); Hindsight bias (Hartmut Blank); Memory conformity (Lorraine Hope; James Ost); False memory (James Ost).

Research Example

"Preserving witness memory" Descriptions provided by eyewitnesses play a crucial in the investigative process. Thus, maximising the amount and accuracy of information obtained from eyewitnesses, and the speed with which witness accounts can be obtained, are significant applied concerns. To this end, Lorraine Hope and colleagues have developed a self-administered, scene-of-the-crime interviewing tool: the Self-Administered Interview (SAI©). Results from both lab- and field-based research demonstrate that the SAI© allows officers to collect comprehensive witness accounts in a time-efficient manner (minimising threats to witness memory associated with increased delay prior to recall), and also offers some protection from the damaging effects of misleading post-event information. 

 

Recent publications

Blank, H. (2009). Remembering: A theoretical interface between memory and social psychology. Social Psychology, 40, 164-175.

Griffiths, A., Milne, B., and Cherryman, J. (2011) A question of control? the formulation of suspect and witness interview question strategies by advanced interviewers. International Journal of Police Science Management, 13. pp. 255-267. ISSN 1461-3557 10.1350/ijps.2011.13.3.219

Dunlevy, J. and Cherryman, J. (2012) Target-absent eyewitness identification line-ups: why do children like to choose? Psychiatry, Psychology and Law. ISSN 1321-8719 10.1080/13218719.2012.671584

Gabbert, F., Hope, L. & Fisher, R. P. (2009). Protecting Eyewitness Evidence: Examining the Efficacy of a Self-Administered Interview Tool. Law & Human Behavior, 33, 298-307.

Gabbert, F., Hope, L., Fisher, R. and Jamieson, K. (2012) Protecting against misleading post-event information with a Self-Administered Interview. Applied Cognitive Psychology. ISSN 0888-4080 10.1002/acp.2828

Hope, L., Gabbert, F., & Fisher, R. (2011). From laboratory to the street: Capturing witness memory using the Self-Administered Interview. Legal and criminological psychology, 16, 211-226.

Hope, L., Lewinski, W., Dixon, J., Blocksidge, D. and Gabbert, F. (2012) Witnesses in action: the effect of physical exertion on recall and recognition. Psychological Science. ISSN 1467-9280 10.1177/0956797611431463

Hope, L., Ost, J., Gabbert, F., Healey, S., & Lenton, E. (2008). “With a little help from my friends…”: The role of co-witness relationship in susceptibility to misinformation.   Acta Psychologica, 127, 476-484.

Lowenstein, J. A., Blank, H., & Sauer, J. D. (2010). Uniforms affect the accuracy of children's eyewitness identification decisions. Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, 7, 59-73.

Sauer, J. D., Brewer, N., & Weber, N. (2012). Using confidence ratings to identify a target among foils. Journal of Applied Research in Memory & Cognition, 2, 80-88. 10.1016/j.jarmac.2012.03.003.

Sauer, J. D., Brewer, N., & Weber, N. (2008). Multiple confidence estimates as indices of eyewitness memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 137, 528-547.

Sauer, J. D., Weber, N., & Brewer, N. (2012). Using ecphoric confidence ratings to discriminate seen from unseen faces: The effects of retention interval and distinctiveness. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 19, 490-498.10.3758/s13423-13012-10239-13425.

Sauer, J. D., Brewer, N., Zweck, T., & Weber, N. (2010). The effect of retention interval on the confidence-accuracy relationship for eyewitness identification. Law & Human Behavior, 34, 337–347.

Ost, J. (2010). Recovered memories (invited chapter). In T. Williamson, T. Valentine & R. Bull (Eds.), Handbook of Psychology of Investigative Interviewing. Current Developments and Future Directions. Chichester, UK: Wiley

Ost, J., Ghonouie, H., Cook, L., & Vrij, A. (2008). The effects of confederate influence and confidence on the accuracy of crime judgements. Acta Psychologica, 128, 25-32.

Ost, J., Granhag, P-A., Udell, J., & Roos af Hjelmsäter, E. (2008). Familiarity breeds distortion: The effects of media exposure on false reports concerning the media coverage of the terrorist attacks in London on 7th July 2005. Memory, 16, 76-85 (Special Issue: New insights in trauma and memory).