Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Effects Of Misleading Information And Group Discussion On Eyewitness Testimony, Matthew A. Cook

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of the present studies was to assess the separate and interactive effects of misinformation and group discussion on eyewitness testimony. In Experiments 1and 2, participants viewed a short video of a simulated robbery and shooting, and were then presented with either neutral or misleading information that was embedded in forced-choice questionnaires in a recognition test. Participants were subsequently randomly assigned to a group-recognition or individual-recognition condition. Groups were instructed to answer questions about details of the video (in Experiment 1 they were instructed to try to reach consensus), while individuals completed the recognition task on their own. Finally, …