Reliability of memory

Evidence that memories may be reliable

Read the following two studies.

How strong an argument do they make with regard

to the reliability of memory?

How do they compare to:

Loftus and Palmer

Neisser and Harsch
Loftus and Pickerell
Shaw et al

Study I. Yuille and Cutshall (1986)

The aim of the study was to determine whether leading questions would affect memory of
eyewitnesses at a real crime scene. In other words, the aim was the same as Loftus &
Palmer's (1974) study, but in this case, it used participants who had actually witnessed a
crime. Although the study took advantage of a naturally occurring event, the study, as
you will see, was still a lab experiment, but making use of a purposive sample.

The crime scene was in Vancouver. A thief entered a gun shop and tied up the owner
before stealing money and guns from the shop. The owner freed himself, and thinking
that the thief had escaped, went outside the shop. But the thief was still there and shot
him twice. Police had been called and there was gunfire - and the thief was eventually
killed. As the incident took place in front of the shop, there were eyewitnesses - 21 were
interviewed by the police.

The researchers chose this incident to study because there were enough witness and there
was forensic evidence available to confirm the stories of the eyewitnesses.

The researchers contacted the eyewitnesses four months after the event. 13 of the
eyewitnesses agreed to be interviewed as part of a study. They gave their account of the
incident, and then they were asked questions. Two leading questions were used. Half the
group was asked if they saw a broken headlight on the getaway car. The other half was
asked if they saw a yellow panel on the car (the panel was actually blue). They were also
asked to rate their stress on the day of the event on a seven-point scale.

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It was found that eyewitnesses were actually very reliable. They recalled a large amount
of accurate detail that could be confirmed by the original police reports. They also did not
make errors as a result of the leading questions. 10 out of 13 of them said there was no
broken headlight or yellow quarter panel, or that they had not noticed those particular
details.

The researchers found that the accuracy of the witnesses compared to the original police
reports was between 79% and 84%.

Study II. Bahrick et al (1975)

The aim of the study was to investigate the reliability of autobiographical memory over
time - specifically the names and faces of the people that went to school with us.

Nearly 392 participants aged 17 – 74 were tested. Some of the participants had been out of
high school only two weeks.  At the other end of the continuum, some of the participants
had graduated 57 years earlier. In order for the participants to be selected, they had to be
in a class of at least 90 graduates and there had to be a published yearbook available for
the graduating class. The participants were asked to do five tests:

• A free recall test: Name as many people as you can from your graduating class.
• A photo recognition test: 10 cards, each with five photos. They were asked with of
the five photos was taken from their own yearbook. 8-second limit.  • A name
recognition test:  10 lists of names, each with only one name from the graduating
class.  Participants were asked to identify the person from their class.
• Matching tests: 10 cards each with five pictures.  A name was written across the top
of the page.  The participants were asked to identify the correct photo to match the
name.
• Picture cueing test: The participants were presented with 10 portraits one by one
and asked to write down the name of the person in the photo.  A 15 second time
limit.

The free recall test was always given first and then participants were randomly assigned
to the order of the remaining tests. For each question participants were asked to indicate
their degree of confidence on a three-point scale: 3 being certain, 2 being probable and 1
being a guess.

Results of the study showed that participants who were tested within 15 years of
graduation were about 90% accurate in identifying names and faces. After 48 years they
were accurate 80% for identifying names and 70% in identifying faces.  Free recall was
worse. After 15 years it was 60% and after 48 years it was 30% accurate.

This demonstrates that memories of the names and faces of people in our past are highly
reliable over time; however, it also shows that recognition is better than recall.