Computer Mediated Social Comparative Feedback Does Not Affect Metacognitive Regulation of Memory Reports

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Forensic Psychology

Background:

• Metacognition, the awareness and control of one's own cognition, is crucial for accurate memory reporting.
• Social comparative feedback can influence self-perception and subsequent cognitive performance.
• Eyewitness memory accuracy and detail are critical in legal contexts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of social comparative feedback on the metacognitive regulation of eyewitness memory.
• To determine if the valence (positive or negative) of social feedback affects memory reporting.
• To explore boundary conditions for social feedback effects on meta-memory.

Main Methods:

• Two experiments were conducted with participants recalling details from crime videos.
• Experiment 1: Participants received negative, positive, or no feedback on a co-witness's performance before individual recall.
• Experiment 2: Participants received positive or negative comparative feedback before a subsequent, unscored recall task.

Main Results:

• In Experiment 1, participants receiving any social feedback (positive or negative) volunteered more fine-grain details than controls.
• No significant differences in memory measures were found between negative and positive feedback groups in either experiment.
• Social feedback did not significantly affect confidence, accuracy, or detail level in Experiment 2.

Conclusions:

• Social comparative feedback can influence the quantity of volunteered details in eyewitness memory, independent of feedback valence.
• The effects of social feedback on eyewitness memory regulation may be context-dependent and subject to boundary conditions.
• Further research is needed to fully understand how social feedback modulates meta-memory in eyewitness identification.