ePrints

Can Ego Depletion and Post-event Discussion Change the Way We Remember a Crime?

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Kirby Sainsbury

Downloads

Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available.

Abstract

Ego depletion refers to a state of temporarily reduced self-regulatory capacity. Regulating emotional and cognitive responses to witnessing a violent or distressing event likely induces ego depletion. The current study investigated whether experimentally induced ego depletion would increase susceptibility to memory conformity. Participants viewed a mock crime video and then engaged in a depleting task or a non-depleting control task, before either discussing the video with a confederate who introduced accurate and misleading information or engaging in an individual recall task. Replicating the memory conformity effect, engaging in a post-event discussion reinforced memory for both accurate and misleading information. However, when depleted participants engaged in post-event discussion, they recalled less of the accurate (but the same amount of misleading) post-event information than non-depleted participants. This research suggests that depleted witnesses may suffer the negative consequences of discussion (remembering incorrect post-event information) without the possible benefit of remembering correct information.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Harkness EL, Paterson HM, Denson TF, Kemp RI, Mullan B, Sainsbury K

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Psychiatry, Psychology and Law

Year: 2015

Volume: 22

Issue: 2

Pages: 172-183

Print publication date: 02/02/2015

Online publication date: 24/07/2014

Acceptance date: 01/01/1900

ISSN (print): 1321-8719

ISSN (electronic): 1934-1687

Publisher: Routledge

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13218719.2014.924384

DOI: 10.1080/13218719.2014.924384

Altmetrics

Share