The influence of question order on eyewitness accuracy

The influence of the order in which questions are asked of witnesses was tested with four question orders. When answering the same questions about a film, witnesses were more accurate if the question order followed the time sequence of the film or began with questions on the central characters than if questioning first concerned the main event, or was randomly ordered. It is argued that the question orders eliciting better recall match the organization of the information entered in memory. The correlations between a free account of the film and the accuracy and amount recalled with questions were less than 0·3, indicating that a good witness in one condition may not be so if tested in a different way

Cognitive psychology · Eyewitness memory · Eyewitness testimony · Linguistics · Order (exchange) · Recall · Witness · Deception detection and forensic psychology · Memory Processes and Influences · Psychology · Radiology practices and education · Social Psychology