Post-Event Discussion, effect on accuracy of recall

Question 1

Shaw et al. (1997) method

Answer 1

• Paired participants with a confederate, the pairs were shown videos of a staged robbery and were interviewed afterwards,
• The participant and the confederate alternated who answered the questions first,

Question 2

Shaw et al. (1997) results

Answer 2

• When the participant answered first, recall was accurate about 58% of the time,
• When the confederate answered first and gave accurate answers; recall of the participants was 67%,
• If the confederate gave inaccurate answers, correct recall for the participants fell to 42%.

Question 3

Gabbert et al. (2004) method

Answer 3

• Involved two groups of participants, young adults (17-33 years old) and older adults (58-80 years old),
• Both groups watched a staged crime and were then exposed to misleading information in one of two ways, either through conversation with a confederate who was pretending to be a participant, or reading a written report of the crime, supposedly written by another participant,
• Participants were then given a recall test about the event witnessed.

Question 4

Gabbert et al. (2004) Results

Answer 4

• found that both groups of adults were more likely to report inaccurate information after a conversation with a confederate than after reading the report.