Podem os pós-avisos de esclarecimento eliminar a conformidade da memória?

Abstract

Após a discussão com outra testemunha sobre um acontecimento, as pessoas podem incorporar nas suas próprias memórias informações novas e erradas e, consequentemente incluí-las em relatos posteriores ao evento. Este fenómeno apelida-se de conformidade da memória. O presente estudo teve como objetivo perceber de que forma as testemunhas podem ser protegidas desta informação falsa utilizando pós-avisos de esclarecimento. Nesta investigação utilizou-se o procedimento MORI. Inicialmente, os participantes viram, em pares, um vídeo com duas versões que continham informação inconsistente. Seguidamente, discutiram detalhes do vídeo de forma a introduzir espontaneamente a informação falsa. Por fim, metade dos participantes receberam um pós-aviso de esclarecimento e, posteriormente, todos os participantes realizaram um teste de reconhecimento. Os resultados mostraram que a discussão entre teste- munhas afetou a exatidão da memória, sendo menor para itens disputados durante a discussão do que para itens não disputados. Revelaram ainda que o pós-avi- so de esclarecimento não eliminou a conformidade da memória. Assim, conclui-se que a informação enganosa introduzida pela discussão com outra testemunha tem uma influência tão forte na memória do evento que dificilmente é revertida. Desta forma, os relatos das testemunhas podem apresentar informações falsas, algo preocupante para o sistema legal.

Online co‐witness discussions also lead to eyewitness memory distortion: The MORI‐v technique

“…In a meta-analysis, enlightenment was the only type of warning that reduced false memories in the misinformation paradigm (Blank & Launay, 2014). Enlightenment has been previously applied to the MORI procedure, but it showed no effect (Fernandes et al, 2020): participants that were enlightened before the recognition test did not show a significant reduction of the co-witness suggestibility effect.…”

“…However, there were some limitations to how enlightenment was operationalised in that research. In particular, Fernandes et al (2020) did not explicitly mention that participants saw two different videos, which may be key to understand why enlightenment did not reduce memory conformity: participants were not fully aware of the procedure and how false information was presented. In this experiment, our objective was twofold: (1) replicate Experiment 1 to further test the MORI-v procedure and (2) test an improved version of the enlightenment warning to determine whether it would protect witnesses' reports from memory distortion stemming from online discussion.…”

“…Although the enlightenment procedure has proven to be the most effective post-warning to reduce misinformation (Blank & Launay, 2014), to our knowledge, these instructions have been used only once within the MORI technique literature (Fernandes et al, 2020). Fernandes et al (2020) found no reduction in the co-witness suggestibility effect following enlightenment instructions in a face-to-face setting. However, in that study participants were not aware that there were two different versions of the movie, and that might have influenced the results.…”

“…Thus, the enlightenment procedure constitutes an optimal way to encourage participants to retrieve the memory trace of their actual experience, instead of accessing the memory of the information exchange (Blank & Launay, 2014). Although the enlightenment procedure has proven to be the most effective post-warning to reduce misinformation (Blank & Launay, 2014), to our knowledge, these instructions have been used only once within the MORI technique literature (Fernandes et al, 2020). Fernandes et al (2020) found no reduction in the co-witness suggestibility effect following enlightenment instructions in a face-to-face setting.…”

Reinforced self‐affirmation as a method for reducing eyewitness memory conformity: An experimental examination using a modified MORI technique

“…In a series of studies by Paterson et al (2011), it was found that warning a witness that a co-witness may be misleading they did not prevent co-witness conformity: neither when the witness was warned a week after the discussion, nor when the witness was warned immediately after the discussion. Similarly, Fernandes et al (2020) found that extended warning (an "enlightenment') did not reduce memory conformity.…”