- Title
- The role of volition in eyewitness memory conformity
- Creator
- Barnoth, Ditte
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2024
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- Eyewitness testimonies are crucial for criminal investigations. Nevertheless, eyewitness memory research has consistently shown that memory is fallible, and eyewitnesses often incorporate misleading post-event information (PEI) in their testimonies. Such incidents can have severe consequences, such as wrongful conviction of innocent bystanders. Therefore, researchers are committed to understanding what makes eyewitness memory vulnerable to PEI and how to prevent memories from contamination. The research presented in this thesis addresses a gap in the literature by considering volition as intention (i.e., to engage with or avoid co-witness discussions) and volition as choice (i.e., choice between co-witnesses) and its role in memory conformity. Memory conformity is a process whereby witnesses accept and incorporate PEI from co-witnesses into their own witness testimony. We investigated this in a series of three studies (total N = 608). Study 1 explored whether gender influences eyewitnesses’ preference for the co-witness they would choose to discuss the witnessed event with. Furthermore, in Study 1 we looked at the effect of volition and the co-witness’ gender on participants’ tendency to accept misinformation. Participants (N = 195) watched a short mock crime video and then they were presented with two emojis depicting a male and a female character. Participants were told that these emojis represent co-witnesses who also saw the crime. In the volition condition, participants chose a co-witness whose testimony they would like to listen to. In the control (i.e., non-volition) condition they were randomly allocated a co-witness testimony. Study 2 was an extension of Study 1, wherein participants (N = 190) chose their co-witness based on their race (i.e., black or white). In Studies 1 and 2 the participants’ levels of ingroup identification and their relevant intergroup prejudice (i.e., sexism and racism, respectively) were measured. We expected that participants would be more likely to choose the co-witness whose gender (Study 1) or race (Study 2) was congruent with their own. We expected that participants would be more likely to accept misinformation from the co-witness of their choice and the co-witness whose gender (Study 1) or race (Study 2) was congruent with their own. Study 3 focused on volition as participants’ (N = 223) preference to engage with or avoid PEI from a co-witness. Every participant was exposed to PEI, therefore those who preferred to engage with it were self-selected to the volition condition and those who preferred to not engage with it were in the non-volition condition. Furthermore, Study 3 looked at whether participants’ distrust in their own memory affected their preference to engage with or avoid PEI. We expected that individuals with higher memory distrust scores would express more preference to engage with PEI. Furthermore, we expected that participants in the volition condition would be more likely to accept misinformation from the co-witnesses and perceive them as more credible. We found that volition did not influence misinformation acceptance in any of the studies. However, when participants could choose whether to engage or not with the PEI (Study 3), then volition predicted higher perceived credibility of the co-witness. Moreover, we found that intergroup processes influenced participants’ choice of the co-witness, their perceived credibility and misinformation acceptance. The implications of our findings are multifaceted. It is important to consider that intergroup dynamics affect witnesses’ preference for discussion partners; however, these preferences are not independent of situational factors (e.g., the crime scene). The findings within this thesis also show that witnesses are equally likely to accept misinformation regardless of their intention to engage with it. Therefore, our findings inform the practices of the criminal justice system in calling for further training of police officers and the general public about the drawbacks of exposure to PEI. Our research is the first to explore the role of volition in eyewitness discussion. Thus, future research into the role of volition and intergroup dynamics in eyewitness memory conformity is encouraged.
- Subject
- volition; eyewitness memory; misinformation; suggestibility; memory distrust; sexism; racism
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1513306
- Identifier
- uon:56708
- Rights
- Copyright 2024 Ditte Barnoth
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 298 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |