BY CYBILL AUGUST
In the research report by Robinson, Johnson, and Herndon, they examined the relation between reaction time, confidence, and memory processing as predictors of eyewitness memory. The objective of the report is to examine the proposed value of for each of the variables so as to have a possible prediction of accuracy for recalled memories in a crime. In order to find a correlation between the variables, the contemplation of identified differences between recognition tasks and recall task was examined to render a correlation between confidence and accuracy. This part of the experiment was important in order to see if any differences were related to the speed of the reaction time and accuracy. It also is a determinate to see if a strong relation is associated to the confidence of judgments. They determined that witnesses that were more accurate in their answers and faster were ones who were encouraged to answer at their own pace. The determinate of the reaction recall portion was done by administering recall or recognition questions to subjects after viewing a crime. This process gave an assessment of subject's memory time. Certain subjects were also asked to perform a word unscrambling event after the viewing of the film, in order to divide the time between viewing and recall. Under both situations, reaction time in relation to accuracy and reaction time in relation to confidence, were both high in recognition and recall questions. This outcome demonstrates a relation between the response time and the confidence and accuracy of witness report.
REFERENCE
Robinson M., 1997. Reaction time and assessments of cognitive efforts as predictors of eyewitness memory accuracy and confidence. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82, 416-426.