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Stability in the metamemory realism of eyewitness confidence judgments

Buratti, Sandra ; Allwood, Carl Martin and Johansson, Marcus LU (2014) In Cognitive Processing 15(1). p.39-53
Abstract
The stability of eyewitness confidence judgments over time in regard to their reported memory and accuracy of these judgments is of interest in forensic contexts because witnesses are often interviewed many times. The present study investigated the stability of the confidence judgments of memory reports of a witnessed event and of the accuracy of these judgments over three occasions, each separated by 1 week. Three age groups were studied: younger children (8-9 years), older children (10-11 years), and adults (19-31 years). A total of 93 participants viewed a short film clip and were asked to answer directed two-alternative forced-choice questions about the film clip and to confidence judge each answer. Different questions about details in... (More)
The stability of eyewitness confidence judgments over time in regard to their reported memory and accuracy of these judgments is of interest in forensic contexts because witnesses are often interviewed many times. The present study investigated the stability of the confidence judgments of memory reports of a witnessed event and of the accuracy of these judgments over three occasions, each separated by 1 week. Three age groups were studied: younger children (8-9 years), older children (10-11 years), and adults (19-31 years). A total of 93 participants viewed a short film clip and were asked to answer directed two-alternative forced-choice questions about the film clip and to confidence judge each answer. Different questions about details in the film clip were used on each of the three test occasions. Confidence as such did not exhibit stability over time on an individual basis. However, the difference between confidence and proportion correct did exhibit stability across time, in terms of both over/underconfidence and calibration. With respect to age, the adults and older children exhibited more stability than the younger children for calibration. Furthermore, some support for instability was found with respect to the difference between the average confidence level for correct and incorrect answers (slope). Unexpectedly, however, the younger children's slope was found to be more stable than the adults. Compared to the previous research, the present study's use of more advanced statistical methods provides a more nuanced understanding of the stability of confidence judgments in the eyewitness reports of children and adults. (Less)
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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Confidence, Confidence accuracy, Realism of confidence, Calibration, Stability, Eyewitness memory, Metamemory
in
Cognitive Processing
volume
15
issue
1
pages
39 - 53
publisher
Springer
external identifiers
  • wos:000346037800004
  • scopus:84895076245
ISSN
1612-4782
DOI
10.1007/s10339-013-0576-y
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
099dab64-e4b0-40d7-ab07-29ae2082371d (old id 4962476)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 10:44:22
date last changed
2022-04-20 05:46:21
@article{099dab64-e4b0-40d7-ab07-29ae2082371d,
  abstract     = {{The stability of eyewitness confidence judgments over time in regard to their reported memory and accuracy of these judgments is of interest in forensic contexts because witnesses are often interviewed many times. The present study investigated the stability of the confidence judgments of memory reports of a witnessed event and of the accuracy of these judgments over three occasions, each separated by 1 week. Three age groups were studied: younger children (8-9 years), older children (10-11 years), and adults (19-31 years). A total of 93 participants viewed a short film clip and were asked to answer directed two-alternative forced-choice questions about the film clip and to confidence judge each answer. Different questions about details in the film clip were used on each of the three test occasions. Confidence as such did not exhibit stability over time on an individual basis. However, the difference between confidence and proportion correct did exhibit stability across time, in terms of both over/underconfidence and calibration. With respect to age, the adults and older children exhibited more stability than the younger children for calibration. Furthermore, some support for instability was found with respect to the difference between the average confidence level for correct and incorrect answers (slope). Unexpectedly, however, the younger children's slope was found to be more stable than the adults. Compared to the previous research, the present study's use of more advanced statistical methods provides a more nuanced understanding of the stability of confidence judgments in the eyewitness reports of children and adults.}},
  author       = {{Buratti, Sandra and Allwood, Carl Martin and Johansson, Marcus}},
  issn         = {{1612-4782}},
  keywords     = {{Confidence; Confidence accuracy; Realism of confidence; Calibration; Stability; Eyewitness memory; Metamemory}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{39--53}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  series       = {{Cognitive Processing}},
  title        = {{Stability in the metamemory realism of eyewitness confidence judgments}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10339-013-0576-y}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/s10339-013-0576-y}},
  volume       = {{15}},
  year         = {{2014}},
}