Abstract
Forty students served as subjects in two groups of witnesses to which a surprise filmed crime was shown. All subjects gave free recall statements about the crime. Following either a directed thinking interval or a diversionary task to block rehearsal, witnesses gave two additional statements. Hypermnesia for hits and memory intrusions was observed, but ď scores did not show hypermnesia. The witnesses fell into two groups: “good” witnesses who had ascertained the correct schema and “bad” witnesses who were obviously on the wrong track. While most witnesses showed short-term hypermnesia for correct responses (hits), the good witnesses showed a significant increase in memory intrusions (false alarms) during the third recall trial (p <.01). Only with correct-schema witnesses did ď scores above the guessing level occur. Witnesses who had ascertained the correct schema but who were interrogated too often tended to make things up to suit the demands for detail, with a resultant increase in memory intrusions and lower d’.
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Buckhout, R., Eugenio, P., & Lecitra, T. Is there life after hypnosis? Attempts to reviveeyewitness’ memory. Paper presented to the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Los Angeles, August 25, 1981.
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This research was supported in part by a grant from the Faculty Research Award Program of the City University of New York and by Grant DAR 7926805 from the National Science Foundation. The authors want to thank Effie Zaras and Linda Falcone of the Center for Responsive Psychology, Brooklyn College, for their assistance. A brief report of the early findings in this research was first presented at the American Psychological Association meeting, New York City, September 1, 1979.
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Eugenio, P., Buckhout, R., Kostes, S. et al. Hypermnesia in the eyewitness to a crime. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 19, 83–86 (1982). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03330047
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03330047