Examining the effects of negative emotion and interviewing procedure on eyewitness recall

Abstract

Witnessing or experiencing a crime can be emotionally distressing and this emotional reaction can affect the formation and retrieval of event-related memory. Extant eyewitness research, however, has generated inconsistent conclusions regarding the effects of emotional arousal on eyewitness memory. In the present experiment, we used a mock witness paradigm to attempt to remedy several methodological limitations that have persisted in the literature and shed light on the effects of emotional memory within an investigative interviewing context. Participants (N = 132) viewed either a Negative or Neutral video and either immediately or one week later provided their account of the video in a virtual interview procedure, consisting of either cognitive interview- based instructions or a free recall. Negative emotion was associated with selectively enhanced recall for the central aspects of the video. Participants who viewed the Negative video reported more details that were central to the target video than did those who viewed the Neutral video. The present findings highlight the potential for negative emotional events to lead to focally enhanced recall performance.