The Role of Arousal and Retention Interval on Eyewitness Memory
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1590/0102.3772e37211Keywords:
Eyewitness testimony, Arousal, Retention interval, MemoryAbstract
Witnessing a crime can be a highly stressful situation, eliciting arousal levels that may affect eyewitness memory performance. In two experiments, participants watched a mock crime with varying arousal intensities (neutral, robbery, and murder), and provided reports after varying retention intervals (immediate testing, 7 days, 14 days or 21 days). Results showed that arousal did not have a significant main effect on eyewitness memory recall. Eyewitness memory performance was stronger for the event with higher arousal only after a 7 days retention interval, but performance was comparable across all arousal conditions in longer retention intervals. Theoretical and practical implications related to the evaluation of eyewitness testimony are discussed.
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