Child and adult witnesses: the effect of repetition and invitation-probes on free recall and metamemory realism

Abstract

Witnesses' event recall and the realism in their evaluation of the correctness of their recall are of great importance in forensic processes. These issues were investigated in the present study by use of calibration methodology. More specifically, we analyzed the effects of two recalls of the same event (repetition) and of probes (non-informative followup questions at recall) on 9-11 year-old children's and adults' open free recall and the degree of realism in the participants' confidence judgments of the correctness of the recall after they had seen a short video clip. The findings were that repetition resulted in more units recalled both for children and for adults, and in that the children showed higher overconfidence compared with one recall, but not the adults. Moreover, when only the statements in the repetition conditions that were recalled twice were included in the analysis, higher confidence was found for the children (independent of an increase in the proportion correct statements of all statements) but not for the adults. Probing increased the number of units recalled for both children and adults, decreased the children's proportion correct statements but not the adults', decreased both children's and adults' confidence and increased the children's overconfidence, but not the adults'. Finally, the combination of two recalls and probing disrupted the children's but not the adults' metacognitive performance.

The effects of question format and co-witness peer discussion on the confidence accuracy of children's testimonies

“…This result is in line with Knutsson et al (2011), although our prompts introduced somewhat more new information than the prompts they used. The result, higher overconfidence for prompts, may be explained by considering the memory model of Koriat and Goldsmith (1996) described in the introduction.…”

“…An example of a prompt is, "What happened then?" Prompts are important as a large amount of new information, up to almost half of children's narratives, may be elicited during this phase of questioning (Knutsson, Allwood, & Johansson, 2011;Lamb et al, 2003;Poole & Lindsay, 2001). In contrast, confidence is likely to be lower for prompts as compared with free recall because with the former, the person is pushed to report information that was not reported spontaneously in free recall; that is, they have less in the way of report option for prompts compared with free recall.…”

“…In contrast, confidence is likely to be lower for prompts as compared with free recall because with the former, the person is pushed to report information that was not reported spontaneously in free recall; that is, they have less in the way of report option for prompts compared with free recall. We know of only one study that has investigated confidence accuracy for prompts (Knutsson et al, 2011). Those authors found that prompts increased overconfidence in children aged 9-11 years old.…”

The Curious Complexity between Confidence and Accuracy in Reports from Memory

“…In a related study, Shaw and McClure (1996) showed that repeated questioning infl uenced witnesses' confi dence without increasing their accuracy. Th is eff ect was also replicated by Odinot et al (2009;but see Ebbesen & Rienick, 1998, and a review by Knutsson, Allwood, & Johansson, 2011, that shows that the issue is still in some doubt).…”

What Is the Correct Answer about The Dress’ Colors? Investigating the Relation between Optimism, Previous Experience, and Answerability

“…If a person makes the same judgment many times, they also seem to be more confident that the answer is correct (e.g., Hertwig et al, 1997; Knutsson et al, 2011; Koriat, 2011, 2012; Unkelbach et al, 2011). Thus, when making the same perceptual judgment several times (e.g., “blue and black” ) people may convince themselves this must be the correct answer.…”