The influence of retrieval processes in verbal overshadowing

Abstract

Recent studies of eyewitness memory have observed deleterious effects of producing a verbal description on later identification accuracy of a previously viewed face, an effect termed verbal overshadowing (Schooler & Engstler-Schooler, 1990). The present research investigated whether the phenomenon of verbal overshadowing may be constrained by variation in participants' initial retrieval processes, such that verbalization of a previously viewed stimulus could produce either positive or negative influences on subsequent attempts at recollection. To assess the validity of this hypothesis, we manipulated participants' response criterion during the verbal description task. As predicted, variation in response criterion significantly influenced not only the quality of the description generated but also accuracy on a subsequent identification task. This retrieval-based effect was found to persist despite either a postdescription delay (Experiment 1) or source-monitoring instructions at the time of the identification task (Experiment 2). We conclude that retrieval-based processes exert a powerful influence over the accuracy of verbalization and subsequent identification of a target face.

The impact of irrelevant auditory facial descriptions on memory for target faces: implications for eyewitness memory

“…The quantity of information provided by participants relating to the target face in each condition was analyzed in accordance with the procedure set out by Meissner, Brigham, and Kelley (2001). A correct description was generated by two raters for the target face and a decision was reached between these two raters with regards to the details that would be classified as correct, subjective, or incorrect for each face.…”

Overthinking skilled motor performance: Or why those who teach can’t do

“…This recoding interference account is consistent with findings that the contents of a verbal description can influence the likelihood of misremembering. For example, warning participants only to describe details that they can confidently recall (Meissner, Brigham, & Kelley, 2001) or providing participants with the names that they generated at encoding for hard-to-name forms (Brandimonte & Collina, 2008) have been shown to enhance subsequent memory accuracy.…”

“…First, there is often little relationship between description accuracy and verbal overshadowing (Fallshore & Schooler, l995;Schooler & Engstler-Schooler, 1990; however, see Meissner et al, 2001). Second, describing a different face (Dodson, Johnson, & Schooler, 1997) or even describing a car (Westerman & Larsen, 1997) can impair later recognition of a target face.…”

Beneficial effects of verbalization and visual distinctiveness on remembering and knowing faces

“…Finally, this picture is complicated by the fact that there are a number of studies that have established interfering effects of verbalizing a face upon subsequent recognition, a phenomenon termed verbal overshadowing (e.g., Meissner, Brigham, & Kelley, 2001;Schooler & EngstlerSchooler, 1990; see Schooler, 2002, for a review). Recently, proposed a misinformation account of verbal interference whereby nonveridical information elicited by a description impacts unfavorably upon the visual memory for the target face (see also ).…”