Choose Your Words Wisely: What Verbal Hesitation Indicates About Eyewitness Accuracy

Abstract

SummaryResearchers have demonstrated qualitative differences in witness verbal reports made in the presence and absence of misinformation. The present study examined changes in linguistic markers present in verbal reports in the context of a repeated‐retrieval misinformation study. After witnessing an event, an immediate retrieval group engaged in a free‐recall test associated with the event. The delayed retrieval group completed a filler task. Following, all participants were presented with a post‐event narrative that included neutral, consistent, and misleading details. Both groups then took two free‐recall tests. We found that hesitations were more likely to accompany correctly remembered details if those details were altered in the narrative, than if there was consistency between the original event and narrative. We also found that retrieval prior to misinformation positively influenced the inclusion of hesitations in free‐recall reports that immediately followed the narrative.Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The impact of hedged testimony on judgments of credibility

“…But without expert assistance, jurors are unlikely to see it that way. Instead, they tend to look to the “degree of detail” (Paiva, Berman, Cutler, Platania, & Weipert, ; Thomas, Chen, Gordon, & Tenbrink, ), or confidence of the claimant (Leippe, Manion, & Romanczyk, ; Whitley & Greenberg, ), to determine whether their testimony is credible.…”