Time to reflect on voice parades: The influence of reflection and retention interval duration on earwitness performance

Abstract

Experiment-based voice parades often result in low hit-rates and high false-alarm rates. One contributing factor may be that the experimental procedures omit elements that might naturally occur in the memory formation process, such as the process of reflection. In Experiment 1 (N = 180, F = 92) we explored if a post-encoding reflection manipulation, compared to a simple attention control task, prior to a five-minute retention interval would improve identification performance. In Experiment 2 (N = 180, F = 93), we explored how the effects of this manipulation might change when the retention interval was 24-h. The results show that the inclusion of a reflection manipulation did not meaningfully improve performance in either experiment. Importantly, we found no meaningful difference in performance when directly comparing the two retention interval durations. We consider theoretical explanations for these results and discuss implications for the design and validity of earwitness voice parade studies.