Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Oct 28;29(5):788-805.
doi: 10.1080/13218719.2021.1976303. eCollection 2022.

The effects of immediate recall and subsequent retrieval strategy on eyewitness memory

Jennifer Ma  1 , Helen M Paterson  1 , Misia Temler  1
Affiliations

The effects of immediate recall and subsequent retrieval strategy on eyewitness memory

Jennifer Ma et al. Psychiatr Psychol Law. .

Abstract

The current study investigated the effects of immediate recall and subsequent interview on mock witnesses' memory of a crime. After watching a video of a crime, 111 participants were randomly allocated to an immediate recall condition (the iWitnessed mobile app, free recall). One week later, participants were randomly allocated to a retrieval condition (timeline aid, category clustering recall, free recall). Results showed that iWitnessed elicited more correct details than free recall at immediate recall (Time 1), without compromising accuracy. However, the immediate recall tool did not affect memory performance at a one-week delay (Time 2). At Time 2, participants with retrieval support (timeline aid, category clustering recall) reported more details than those with no retrieval support (free recall), without compromising accuracy. The findings highlight that high-quality immediate recall and retrieval support during a subsequent interview are necessary to elicit more complete and accurate accounts.

Keywords: Eyewitness memory; eyewitness recall; immediate recall; interviewing; retrieval strategy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Flow diagram of the procedure. STAI–S = State–Trait Anxiety Inventory–State; STAI–T = State–Trait Anxiety Inventory–Trait; IES–R = Impact of Events Scale–Revised.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. 4th ed., Text Revision). Author.
    1. Anderson, J. (1983). A spreading activation theory of memory. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behaviour, 22, 261–295. 10.1016/S0022-5371(83)90201-3 - DOI
    1. Areh, I. (2011). Gender-related differences in eyewitness testimony. Personality and Individual Differences, 50(5), 559–563. 10.1016/j.paid.2010.11.027 - DOI
    1. Beck, J. G., Palyo, S. A., Winer, E. H., Schwagler, B. E., & Ang, E. J. (2007). Virtual reality exposure therapy for PTSD symptoms after a road accident: An uncontrolled case series. Behavior Therapy, 38(1), 39–48 - PubMed
    1. Belli, R. F., & Al Baghal, T. (2016). Parallel associations and the structure of autobiographical knowledge. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 5(2), 150–157. 10.1016/j.jarmac.2016.03.004 - DOI

LinkOut - more resources