Eyewitness Memory in Older Adults

老年人的目击者记忆

• 批准号: 9809977
• 负责人: James Bartlett
• 金额: $ 24.76万
• 依托单位: University of Texas at Dallas
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1998
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1998-09-01 至 2002-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9809977&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Eyewitness; Memory; Older; Adults

Ten experiments are conducted that compare eyewitness testimony in young adulthood and old age, exploring the person- and task- characteristics that might affect performance of the older eyewitness. Parts I and 11 further examine findings that false identifications in lineups are increased in old age, and that exposing the eyewitness to a post- event narrative is a factor involved in producing this effect. Modifying the procedures of earlier researchers Experiment 1 addresses the possibility that verbal recall of the crime-event prior to the lineup task (a) increases rates of false choosing in elderly (and/or young) adults, and (b) magnifies the deleterious effects of previously exposed narrative. Extending recent work on the `verbal overshadowing effect`, Experiment 2 tests the possibility that high choosing rates among older eyewitnesses reflect a non-optimal mode of face processing (verbal encoding of facial features) that is reinforced by verbal recall of facial information, and can be prevented in at least some eyewitnesses by eliminating the task of verbal recall prior to a lineup. Considering prior evidence that context reinstatement prior to a lineup can either help or hurt lineup identification, in Experiment 3 participants are exposed to a highly salient event involving physical interaction with an actor, comparing the cognitive interview to both a standard structured interview and a control (non-structured) interview to assess its effects on both (a) completeness and accuracy of recall as well as (b) accuracy and choosing in lineups. Experiment 4_ is based on the `mugshot effect` of increased rates of false identifications of faces not seen at a crime but viewed in another context The hypothesis tested that the mugshot effect will be even stronger among elderly persons but that it can be reduced by instructions and testing materials that discourage eyewitnesses from basing their judgments on perceived familiarity. Experiment 5 addresses a similar hypothesis as applied to the `bystander effect` of increased rates of false identification due to the presence in a lineup of a bystander (instead of the perpetrator) in a prior a crime event). Although the bystander effect is known to be ephemeral it was found that older eyewitnesses show the effect more strongly. A replication of this potentially important finding is undertaken, examining whether older persons can overcome the effect if the instructions and materials discourage familiarity-based responding. The next three proposed studies (Part lil) depart from prior work in exploring how socio-cogntive variables of stereotypes and person-schemata affect recall of crime-events and lineup identification. Experiments 6 and 7 assess this possibility. In addition, both studies examine how positive and negative biographical information about the perpetrator and/or victim can moderate the effect. The key question is whether the tendency to pick a guilty-looking suspect reflects a simple response bias or a more complex appraisal of the appearance of the suspect relative to the story being told about the crime. Experiment 8 returns to the `bystander effect,` assessing whether the selection of a bystander is linked not merely to perceived familiarity, but to the congruence between the bystander's appearance (guilty vs. innocent) and the nature of the event (a crime vs. a charitable act). The final two experiments (Part IV) reflect a change of focus from lineup identification to verbal recall about a crime. Experiments 9 and 10 both address the well known observation that repeated questioning of witnesses can increase the frequency or erroneous intrusions and confabulations, particularly if the questioning entails presentation of misleading information. First, Experiment 9 examines the conditions under which repeated questioning can have positive, `hypermnesia` effects which heretofore have not been examined in old age. Experiment 10 examine the phenomenon that misleading information implanted in the questioning will be incorporated in later recalls, testing a prediction based on cognitive-aging theories that this effect will be increased in old age. An important component of all the experiments will be the inclusion of neuropsychological and/or personality tests to reveal individual-difference factors that might moderate age differences.

我们进行了十个实验，比较了年轻和老年目击者的证词，探索了可能影响年长目击者表现的人和任务的特征。第一部分和第十一部分进一步研究了这样的发现，即在老年人中，错误的身份识别会增加，让目击者接触到事件后的叙述是产生这种效果的一个因素。修改早期研究人员实验1的程序解决了这样一种可能性，即在连线任务之前口头回忆犯罪事件(A)增加了老年人(和/或年轻人)的错误选择率，以及(B)放大了先前暴露的叙述的有害影响。实验2扩展了最近关于“言语遮蔽效应”的研究，测试了在年长目击者中的高选择率是否反映了一种非最佳的面部处理模式(面部特征的言语编码)，这种模式得到了面部信息的言语回忆的强化，至少在一些目击者中，可以通过在列队前取消言语回忆任务来防止这种情况。考虑到先前的证据表明，在阵容之前恢复情境可以帮助或损害阵容识别，在实验3中，参与者被暴露在一个涉及与演员身体互动的高度显著的事件中，将认知访谈与标准结构化面试和对照(非结构化)面试进行比较，以评估其对(A)回忆的完整性和准确性以及(B)准确性和在队列中的选择的影响。实验4_是基于在犯罪过程中看不到的面孔的错误识别率的增加，但从另一个背景来看，该假说测试了老年人的面部照片效应会更强，但可以通过指示和测试材料来减少这种效应，这些材料阻止目击者根据他们感知的熟悉度做出判断。实验5处理的假设与适用于“旁观者效应”的“旁观者效应”类似，“旁观者效应”是由于在之前的犯罪事件中出现旁观者(而不是犯罪者)而导致错误识别率增加的。虽然旁观者效应被认为是短暂的，但研究发现，年长的目击者表现出的这种效应更强烈。对这一潜在的重要发现进行了重复，考察了如果说明和材料不鼓励基于熟悉度的反应，老年人是否能够克服这种影响。接下来的三个拟议研究(部分LIL)从先前的工作出发，探索刻板印象和人-图式的社会认知变量如何影响犯罪事件的回忆和线条识别。实验6和实验7评估了这种可能性。此外，这两项研究都考察了关于犯罪者和/或受害者的正面和负面传记信息如何缓和影响。关键问题是，选择一名看起来有罪的嫌疑人的倾向，是反映了简单的反应偏见，还是反映了相对于讲述的犯罪故事，对嫌疑人外表的更复杂评估。实验8回到了“旁观者效应”，评估选择一个旁观者是否不仅与感知的熟悉度有关，而且与旁观者的外表(有罪与无辜)和事件的性质(犯罪与慈善行为)之间的一致性有关。最后两个实验(第四部分)反映了焦点从阵容识别到对犯罪的口头回忆的转变。实验9和实验10都涉及众所周知的观察，即反复询问证人会增加错误侵入和虚构的频率，特别是如果询问涉及提供误导性信息。首先，实验9考察了在何种条件下，反复提问会产生积极的“多动症”效应，而这些效应在老年之前还没有被研究过。实验10考察了问题中植入的误导性信息会被纳入到后来的回忆中的现象，检验了基于认知老化理论的预测，即这种影响在老年时会增加。所有实验的一个重要组成部分将是包括神经心理和/或人格测试，以揭示可能缓和年龄差异的个体差异因素。