Metamemory and Eyewitness Memory: Will the Accessibility Heuristic be used to predict Memory for Details of a Complex Event?

Author

Kathryn Meredith Webster

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Williams, Carrick C.

Committee Member

Eakin, Deborah K.

Committee Member

Giesen, Martin

Date of Degree

4-30-2011

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Psychology

Degree Name

Master of Science

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of Psychology

Abstract

Metamemory is a person’s knowledge about their own memory. Metamemory judgments are sometimes accurate and sometimes not. Eakin (2005) found a dissociation between metamemory predictions and memory performance under conditions of retroactive interference and attributed this dissociation to the accessibility heuristic. This study investigated whether the accessibility heuristic would be used to make metamemory predictions in the more complex context of the eyewitness memory paradigm. The results indicate that the accessibility heuristic was used to make metamamory predictions. Memory performance was better for control than misled critical items, but people predicted they would perform equally well in both conditions. It appears that in the less austere context of the eyewitness memory paradigm, the amount of information accessible for control and misled items was equal, and therefore, metamemory judgments were equal for control and misled items.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/17939

Comments

accessibility heuristic||metamemory||Eyewitness memory

Recommended Citation

Webster, Kathryn Meredith, "Metamemory and Eyewitness Memory: Will the Accessibility Heuristic be used to predict Memory for Details of a Complex Event?" (2011). Theses and Dissertations. 3072.
https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/td/3072