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Does Time Affect Recall Accuracy?

Aya Haneda, Andrea Tan, and Elijah Ricks, PhD

Participants

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  • May lack statistical power.
  • No exclusion criteria.
  • No known medical or psychological history.
  • No known record of class attendance (One undergraduate class covers sleep affecting recall accuracy).

Limitations

References

Stepan, M. E., Dehnke, T. M., & Fenn, K. M. (2017). Sleep and eyewitness memory: Fewer false identifications after sleep when the target is absent from the lineup. PLOS One, 12(9), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0182907

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National Center for State Courts. (2017, November 1). The State of State Courts: A 2017 NCSC Public Opinion Survey. https://www.ncsc.org/Topics/Court-Community/Public-Trust-and-Confidence/Resource-Guide/2017-State-of-State-Courts-Survey.aspx

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Previous research:

  1. Research show that eyewitness-identification testimony is unreliable and is the leading cause of known false convictions in the United States (Stepan et al., 2017).
  2. The human memory is malleable and is affected by external circumstances (National Center for State Courts, 2017).
  3. Eyewitness-identification testimony is fundamentally recall-based which opens the question whether sleep affects identification accuracy (Stepan et al., 2017).

Purpose:

  1. To investigate the effect of delay on recall accuracy.
  2. To investigate the effect of sleep on recall accuracy.
  3. To investigate whether self-reported confidence ratings are related to recall accuracy.

Introduction

Methods

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Department of Psychology, Roosevelt University

Participants:

  • 122 students at Roosevelt University were recruited via SONA.
  • Participants were randomly assigned to a control group (no delay; n = 84) and an experimental group (delay; n = 38).

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Materials:

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Control (No Delay)

Experimental (Delay)

Mean Age (Years)

22.79

Std. Dev: 5.78

22.86

St. Dev: 4.26

Gender

(Missing: 4)

Male: 2

Female: 34

Male: 10

Female: 69

Transgender: 1

Year of School

(Missing: 5)

Freshman: 5

Sophomore: 6

Junior: 10

Senior: 12

Graduate: 3

Freshman: 7

Sophomore: 7

Junior: 29

Senior: 29

Graduate: 9

Average Sleep (Hours)

8.07

7.52

  • Participants were required to watch a 48 second video clip illustrating a female stealing items from an individuals home. The suspects full face was shown on video for 4 seconds.
  • Participants were asked to indicate the correct suspect from a line up.
  • A “Not Shown” response was also included.
  • After indicating a suspect, participants were asked to rate their confidence about their suspect (1 = Absolutely Certain, 2 = Fairly Confident, 3 = Fairly Doubtful, 4 = Highly Doubtful).

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Experimental Condition:

  • Participants who were assigned to the Control Group were immediately provided with the suspect lineup after viewing the video.
  • Participants who were in the Experimental Group on average had a delay period of 62.31 hours after viewing the video and starting the follow-up survey.

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  • Participants in the Control Group identified the correct suspect more often.
  • There was a statistically significant relationship between condition groups and identification of the correct suspect.

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Did self-reported confidence rating predict recall accuracy?

Did non-delay conditions predict recall accuracy?

Did average hours of sleep predict recall accuracy?

  • Participants who reported higher self-confidence ratings more frequently chose the correct suspect.
  • However, results were not statistically significant.
  • Participants who reported more hours of sleep identified the correct suspect more often.
  • However, results were not statistically significant.
  • Participants who were not exposed to a delay produced significantly higher results of identifying the correct suspect.

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  • Participants self-reported confidence ratings did not predict accuracy of identifying the correct suspect in both groups.

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  • More hours of sleep did not affect recall accuracy in both groups.

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  • Participants in the delay group and their time from the end of the first survey to the start of their follow-up survey did not affect results of indicating the correct suspect.

  • Future studies will add onto this study and increase participant response to further examine whether time affects recall accuracy.

Variable

Mean

(Correct Suspect Indicated)

Sig.

Control Group

0.50

0.02

Experimental Group

0.27

Variable

Mean (Confidence Ratings)

Sig.

Incorrect

2.35

0.10

Correct

2.09

Variable

Mean

(Hours of Sleep)

Sig.

Incorrect

7.58

0.58

Correct

8.18

Did time for the delay group affect recall accuracy?

  • Participants in the delay group who reported less time from the end of the first survey and starting their follow-up survey more frequently chose the correct suspect.
  • However, results were not statistically significant.