The study also found that the age of the eyewitness, the race, and nature ( violent/non-violent) of the crime played a role in accuracy (Berger & Herringer, 1991).
Aronstam and Tyson conducted a study in racial bias in eyewitness perception. .
Memory Recall 4.
They simulated an assault in a college classroom and then participants were asked to write a description of the confederate. Researchers used these descriptions to score accuracy by determining all of the possible accurate descriptions of the confederate. Results indicated that race did not have an effect on memory recall. Racial homogeneity was a limitation of this study as it may be in the current study, yet was not examined.
The present study attempts to confirm beliefs that the anticipation of a crime effects the accuracy of the memory recall of the suspect, and confidence levels of the participants responses. It is also assumed that a relationship exists between accuracy and confidence as studied in past research (Berger & Herringer, 1991).
A sample of sixty-eight college participants were given questionnaires after witnessing a crime, the experimental group unaware of the study, and the control group informed of the study. The data was then analyzed to examine the effects of anticipation on accuracy and confidence. Additional analysis was performed to determine if a relationship exists between accuracy and confidence. .
Method.
Participants.
A total of sixty-eight undergraduate students from the University of Rhode Island anonymously participated in the in the study with no incentives. The majority of the participants (90%) came from Caucasian background. Other ethnicities were also represented in the study, African American (5%), Asian/Pacific Islander (3%), Hispanic (1%), and White/Pacific Islander (1%).
The sixty-eight participants were students from two different undergraduate .
Memory Recall 5.
Psychology courses, one used as the experimental group (N=26), and the other as the control group (N=25).