Feelings of familiarity and false memory for specific associations resulting from mugshot exposure

Abstract

This research reveals that mugshot viewing accompanied by questions about an action can cause young adults to associate the pictured person and the queried action, leading to later false recollection of having seen that person perform that action. In contrast, mugshot viewing in older adults can lead to vague feelings of familiarity for the pictured person, encouraging older adults to later falsely recognize the pictured person performing any familiar action. Participants viewed events involving actors performing different actions and then were asked verbal questions about which actor had performed each action, with each question accompanied by mugshots of potential "perpetrators" of the action. In a later recognition test, older adults were more likely to falsely recognize a novel conjunction of a familiar actor and action if they had seen a mugshot of that actor, regardless of whether the mugshot had accompanied a question about that action. In contrast, young adults were more likely to falsely recognize a conjunction event only if it involved an actor whose mugshot had accompanied a question about that particular action. This effect remained when the analysis was limited to trials involving actors whose mugshots had not been previously selected, implicating false recollection rather than commitment effects.

Keywords: Aging; Eyewitness testimony; False memory; Familiarity; Recognition memory; Recollection.

Figure 1.

Proportions of “Yes” responses to the Old, Conjunction, and New items by the three participant groups, with the three types of Conjunction items aggregated together into a single category. “Yes” responses to the Old items were correct, whereas “yes” responses to the Conjunction and New items constituted errors. Error bars represent standard errors of each mean.

Figure 2.

Proportions of incorrect “Yes” responses to the three different types of Conjunction items by the three participant groups. Error bars represent standard errors of each mean.

Figure 3.

Proportions of incorrect “Yes” responses to Consistent Conjunction items in relation to participants’ earlier selections in the mugshot trials. Target Actor Selected indicates that the actor performing the action in a recognition item had been previously selected in the mugshot trials as having performed that action. Other Actor Selected indicates that the actor performing the action in a recognition item had not been previously selected in the mugshot trials, but rather the other actor who had appeared with this actor had been selected. Neither Actor Selected indicates that the actor performing the action in a recognition item had not been previously selected in the mugshot trials, but rather neither actor had been selected. Error bars represent standard errors of each mean.

Figure 4.

Proportions of incorrect “Yes” responses to Consistent Conjunction and Inconsistent Conjunction items involving actions for which neither actor had been selected in the mugshot trials, and involving actors that had not previously been selected as having performed some other action. Error bars represent standard errors of each mean.