Co-Witnesses, Confederates, and Conformity: Effects of Discussion and Delay on Eyewitness Memory

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of co-witness discussion and delay on eyewitness memory. Participants viewed crime videos and then after a delay (20 min or 2 weeks) their memories for the videos were tested using a recognition questionnaire. They were then randomly assigned to one of three conditions: discussion in groups with a confederate providing misinformation about the videos, discussion in groups with no confederate, or no discussion. Finally, all participants were given another copy of the recognition questionnaire to complete individually. Participants in the confederate discussion condition reported information supplied by the confederate, regardless of the information accuracy. The post-event misinformation had a particularly strong effect on memory accuracy when it was presented after a longer delay. There was no difference in memory accuracy between the groups without confederates and the no-discussion control condition, suggesting that discussion is neither harmful nor beneficial to memory accuracy when no misinformation is supplied.