What happened that day? Recall for events of a day that later became important
| Date | 06 November 2023 |
| Pages | 147-163 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JCP-06-2023-0040 |
| Published date | 06 November 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Criminology & forensic psychology,Criminal psychology,Sociology,Sociology of crime & law,Deviant behaviour,Public policy & environmental management,Policing,Criminal justice |
| Author | Madison B. Harvey,Heather L. Price,Kirk Luther |
What happened that day? Recall for
events of a day that later became
important
Madison B. Harvey, Heather L. Price and Kirk Luther
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this study was to explore potential witnesses’ memories for a day that was
experienced an unremarkable. There may be instances in an investigation in which all leads have been
exhausted, and investigators use a broad appeal for witnesses who may have witnessed something
important. Investigators can benefit from knowing the types of information that may be recalled in such
circumstances, as well as identifying specific methods that are effective in eliciting useful information.
Design/methodology/approach –The present study explored how the delay to recall and recall
method influenced the recollection of a seemingly unremarkable day that later became important.
Participants wereasked to recall an experienced event that occurredeither recently (a few weeks prior)
or in the distant past (a year prior). Participantsrecalled via either a written method, in-person individual-
spokenor collaborative-spoken interviews.
Findings –Results suggest an independent benefit for individual-spoken in-person recall (compared to
written or collaborative-spoken recall) and recall undertaken closely after an event (compared to delayed
recall). Both individual-spoken interviews as well as more recent recollection resulted in a greater number of
overall details recalled. The authors further examined the types of details recalled that might be important to
progressing an investigation (e.g. other witnesses and records).
Originality/value –The present work providesimportant implications for interviewingwitnesses about a
seeminglyunremarkable event that later becameimportant.
Keywords Memory, Interviewing, Written recall, Collaborative recall, Delayed recall
Paper type Research paper
If a crime has occurred and investigators have exhausted all obvious leads, they may
seek out individuals who have unknowingly witnessed something important or relevant
to the investigation. Such an investigative approach may be likely in both recent (i.e.
timely) investigations, as well as cases in which active leads have gone stagnant (i.e. cold
cases). Research has shown that the successful resolution of many timely criminal
investigations is linked to the information obtained during an interview (Vrij et al.,2017). In
one investigation into the case files of 189 solved and unsolved cold cases, Davis et al.
(2013) determined the leading contributor to solved cases was information from new
witnesses or new information provided by witnesses interviewed previously. Although
extensive research has examined witnesses who are aware they have witnessed a crime
and were interviewed in a timely manner (Fisher, 1995;Vallano and Compo, 2015b;Vrij
et al.,2017
), limited knowledge exists regarding the optimal approach to interviewing
individuals about events they maynot have considered remarkable (e.g. a person who was
at a park from which a child goes missing), particularlyafter a substantial delay between the
event and recalling it. In the presentwork, we investigated three approaches (i.e. written, in-
person individual-spoken and in-person collaborative-spoken) to gathering information from
witnesses who were unaware they may have witnessed relevant information about an event
Madison B. Harvey is
based at Simon Fraser
University, Vancouver,
Canada. Heather L. Price is
based at Department of
Psychology, Thompson
Rivers University,
Kamloops, Canada.
Kirk Luther is based at
Department of Psychology,
Carleton University,
Ottawa, Canada.
Received 28 June 2023
Revised 28 September 2023
13 October 2023
Accepted 13 October 2023
This research was supported
by a Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council
of Canada Insight Development
Grant to Price and Luther and
by the Canada Research
Chairs Program (Price).
This research was supported
by a Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council
Insight Development Grant
awarded to the second and
third authors, Canadian
Research Chairs for the second
author, and a Social Sciences
and Humanities Research
Council Doctoral Canadian
Graduate Scholarship awarded
to the first author.
Conflict of interest: The authors
have no conflicts of interest to
report.
DOI 10.1108/JCP-06-2023-0040 VOL. 15 NO. 2 2025, pp. 147-163, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2009-3829 jJOURNAL OF CRIMINAL PSYCHOLOGY jPAGE 147
that occurred recently (weeks ago)or after a long (one-year) delay. We are interested in the
amount and types of information that could be recalled, including verifiable details (i.e.
details that could be confirmed viaanother piece of evidence).
Memory decay
There is a body of work to suggest that the greatest amount of forgetting will take place
shortly after an event (Ebbinghaus, 1885/1964;Rubin and Wenzel, 1996;Wixted, 1990).
This pattern of forgetting has been supported in lab-based studies. For example, Odinot
and Wolters (2006) asked participants to recall details about a video one, three or five
weeks after watching it (or a combination of those delays). A longer delay between
watching the video and recalling it resulted in less information and fewer accurate details
reported, as well as reduced confidence in memory. Similarly, Spearing and Wade (2022)
found that participants who recalled a mock crime video immediately, one week or one
month later showed reduced accuracy and confidence after the longest delay. This pattern
is not limited to adults; in a sample of 9-to-12-year old children, El Asam and Samara (2015)
found that with increasing delays,the amount of correct information recalled decreased.
Field studies on the impact of delay on memory have often focused on delays of a year or
less (Christianson and Hu
¨binette, 1993;Odinot et al., 2009;Yuille and Cutshall, 1986)and
found that witnesses are generally accurate in their recall after such delays. For example,
Odinot et al. (2009) asked participantsto recall an armed robbery they had witnessed three
months earlier. Witnesses’ recall was compared to security camera recordings. Witnesses
who were directly involved and previously interviewed by police (central witnesses) recalled
more details on average than witnesses who were not as involved and not interviewed by
police (peripheral witnesses). Recall accuracy was relatively high overall (84%), and
witnesses primarily recalledpeople details, followed by action and then object details.Yuille
and Cutshall (1986) interviewed witnesses to a shooting four to fivemonths after they had
initially been interviewed by the police. Reports were compared to details of the event as
determined by information related to the investigation (e.g. autopsy reports, forensic
evidence and official witness statements). Again, witnesses were quite accurate in their
recall (73%–85%) and centralwitnesses provided more details than peripheral witnesses.
Researchers have also examined memory for longer delays via adults’ recall of their
childhood. For example, Wells et al. (2014) asked adults to recall early positive and
negative childhood memories. Participants had difficulty recalling specific details such as
time of day/week/year or the weather, but recalled central details of the events such as who
was involved, what happened and where the event(s) took place. It should be noted that
ground truth for the childhood events was unknown, so recall accuracy could not be
assessed. Quas et al. (2010) compared legal documents with teenagers’ and adults’ recall
of involvement in legal proceedings (i.e. sexual abuse as a child) that occurred 14-years
prior. Interviewees who experienced more severe abuse and more extensive involvement in
the legal proceedings were more accurate in their recall of the legal proceedings. Further,
Goldfarb et al. (2023) investigated interview protocols after a 20-year delay regarding
memories for a child maltreatment medical exam and found that what participants were
able to recall was generally accurate, though participants recalled central details with
higher accuracy than peripheral details. Thus, it appears that the central features of salient
events can be retained in memory for long periods of time (see also Peterson and Bell,
1996;Peterson and Whalen, 2001).
Prior work examining long-term memory has often focused on stressful or emotional events
to examine how particularly salient events may be recalled (Fivush et al.,2004;Peterson,
1999;Peterson and Whalen, 2001). Stressful events may either hinder (Deffenbacher et al.,
2004) or enhance (Talarico et al., 2004) recall. While the literature does not clearly indicate
that emotional memories are remembered better than non-emotional memories (see
McNally, 2005), some memories are more likely to be rehearsed either through re-telling or
PAGE 148 jJOURNAL OF CRIMINAL PSYCHOLOGY jVOL. 15 NO. 2 2025
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