The effects of specificity of schema on false recall

An analysis from the viewpoint of eyewitness testimony

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of two levels of specificity of schema on generation of false recall. One level is widely applied to things and is shared by the general public (less specific schema) and the other is specifically applied to individual things (more specific schem). Sixty female undergraduates watched a video. After two days, they were required to recall the contents of the story. Students were divided into two groups according to whether they have the more specific schema or not. In each group, they were assigned to either free recall task or reality monitoring task. The results showed that (1) the amounts of false recall by the group having the less specific schema only decreased by reality monitoring. (2) The group having the more specific schema had no differential effects on false recall for both tasks. (3) The effect of specificity of schema on false recall was not observed for the scene which did not activate the more specific schema. These results were discussed in terms of the levels of specificity of schema and effectiveness of reality monitoring for eyewitness memory.