ABSTRACT

The way in which individuals think about their own cognitive processes plays an important role in various domains. When eyewitnesses assess their confidence in identification decisions, they could be influenced by how easily relevant information comes to mind. This ease-of-retrieval effect has a robust influence on people's cognitions in a variety of contexts (e.g., attitudes), but it has not yet been applied to eyewitness decisions. In three studies, we explored whether the ease with which eyewitnesses recall certain memorial information influenced their identification confidence assessments and related testimony-relevant judgements (e.g., perceived quality of view). We manipulated the number of reasons participants gave to justify their identification (Study 1; N = 343), and also the number of instances they provided of a weak or strong memory (Studies 2a & 2b; Ns = 350 & 312, respectively). Across the three studies, ease-of-retrieval did not affect eyewitnesses’ confidence or other testimony-relevant judgements. We then tried – and failed – to replicate Schwarz, N., Bless, H., Strack, F., Klumpp, G., Rittenauer-Schatka, H., & Simons, A. (1991. Ease of retrieval as information: Another look at the availability heuristic. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61(2), 195–202. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.61.2.195) original ease-of-retrieval finding (Study 3; N = 661). In three of the four studies, ease-of-retrieval had the expected effect on participants’ perceived task difficulty; however, frequentist and Bayesian testing showed no evidence for an effect on confidence or assertiveness ratings.

摘要

个人思考自己认知过程的方式在各个领域都发挥着重要作用。当目击者评估他们对识别决定的信心时，他们可能会受到相关信息出现的难易程度的影响。这种易于检索的效果对人们在各种背景下（例如态度）的认知具有强大的影响，但尚未应用于目击者的决定。在三项研究中，我们探讨了目击者回忆某些纪念信息的难易程度是否会影响他们的识别信心评估和相关的证词相关判断（例如，感知的观点质量）。我们操纵了参与者为证明其身份而提供的理由数量（研究 1；N = 343），以及他们提供的弱或强记忆的实例数量（研究 2a 和 2b；分别为N s = 350 和 312）。在这三项研究中，检索的容易程度并没有影响目击者的信心或其他与证词相关的判断。然后我们尝试复制 Schwarz, N.、Bless, H.、Strack, F.、Klumpp, G.、Rittenauer-Schatka, H. 和 Simons, A.（1991 年。作为信息的易检索性：再看看可用性启发式。Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 61 (2), 195–202. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.61.2.195) 原始的轻松检索发现（研究 3；N = 661）。在四项研究中的三项中，容易检索对参与者感知的任务难度有预期的影响；然而，频率论和贝叶斯测试表明没有证据表明对信心或自信评级有影响。