3. Post Event Discussion

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this lecture, we think about post event discussion, focusing in particular on: (i) the 1995 Oklahoma bombing as an example of real world research into post event discussion; (ii) findings that witnesses who had not previously reported seeing an accomplice reported seeing one after discussing the event with another witness who had initially reported seeing one; (iii) the results of Gabbert and colleagues’ 2003 study, which showed that post event discussion can exert a powerful effect on witness memory, by finding that participants reported witnessing events that they could not possibly have witnessed, after discussing them with someone who did; (iv) the opportunity for memory decay and post event discussion to occur if witnesses are not interviewed immediately after an event; (v) a technique known as a self-administered interview to inoculate witnesses against forgetting and post event information.

Course

In this course, Dr Adam Charles Harvey (University of the West of England) explores factors which impact the accuracy of eye witness testimony. In the first lecture, we think about the factors which impact eye witness memory in the criminal justice system. In the second lecture, we think about the impact of leading questions on the reliability and accuracy of eye witness testimony. In the third lecture, we think about the effects of post event discussion on eye witness memory. Next, we think about the reconstructive nature of memory, with a focus on Bartlett’s work and responses to it. In the fifth lecture, we think about context dependant memory. In the sixth and final lecture, we think about the impacts of anxiety and stress on memory performance.

Lecturer

Dr Adam Charles Harvey is a lecturer in social psychology in the department of Health and Social Sciences at the University of the West of England. Dr Charles Harvey’s research interests are in verbal lie-detection via proactive psychological interviewing. Some of Dr Charles Harvey’s recent publications include ‘Applying the asymmetric information management technique to insurance claims’ (2022) and ‘The stability bias effect amongst lie-tellers: Testing the ‘miscalibration’ and ‘strategic’ hypotheses’ (in press).