Other people's memory

H. Crombag*, H.L.G.J. Merckelbach, H. Elffers

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

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Abstract

How optimistic are people's evaluations of their own memory as compared to that of most others? To find out, we asked 563 Ss. to compare their own memory for events, faces and names to that of others. The results show that many, and especially young respondents, tend to be illusory optimistic about the power of their memory for events and faces, but not for names. The implications of this result for evaluating eyewitness reports by triers of fact in legal cases are discussed.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)251-265
JournalPsychology Crime & Law
Volume6
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2000

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