Investigating the Effects of Crime Type and Memory Processes on Eyewitness Misidentifications

Abstract

The present research aimed to investigate whether stereotypes regarding race and crime would affect one’s memory of a person’s appearance, particularly in regards to his level of stereotypicality. Additionally, this study (N = 100) aimed to extend the work of Osborne and Davies (2013) by attempting to pinpoint the specific memory processes that lead to misidentifications. It was hypothesised that Crime Type (i.e., stereotypically White, stereotypically Black, no crime) and Memory Process (encoding versus retrieval) would interact and affect one’s memory of a suspect’s appearance. Contrary to our predictions, there was no effect of Crime Type or Memory Process on one’s judgement of the suspect’s level of stereotypicality. Though there was no evidence of a racial bias, there was an effect of Crime Type and Memory Process on other non-race related judgements. Thus, the present study showed that our expectations and stereotypes regarding certain crimes (and the perpetrators of such crimes) affect how suspects are later remembered. It also showed that these memory biases are not random, and that they are systematically influenced by the presentation of information.