eyewitness testimony: post-event discussion

• Procedure of Gabbert et al. study on post-event discussion: Paired participants watched a video of the same crime, but filmed so each participant could see elements in the event that the other could not. Both participants discussed what they had seen before individually taking a recall test.
• Findings and conclusions of Gabbert et al. study on post-event discussion: 71% of participants wrongly recalled aspects of the event they did not see in the video but has heard in the discussion. The control group, where there was no discussion before the recall test had no errors. This was evidence of memory conformity
• post-event discussions affect eyewitness testimony as when co-witnesses discuss a crime, they mix information from other witnesses with their own memories. Witnesses go along with each other to win social approval or because they believe the other witnesses are right
• One strength of post-event discussion is that there is evidence. Skagerberg and Wright’s participants discussed film clips they had seen (in one version, the mugger had dark brown hair and the other light brown). The participants recalled a mix of what they had seen and heard (from co-witnesses). This suggests that the memory itself is distorted through contamination by post-event discussion.