The Effects of Writing on Memory for a Forensically Relevant Event

Abstract

The current study examined the effects of writing on memory for a forensically relevant event. Participants (N = 99) viewed a crime video and either wrote about what happened in the video, drew about the video as a retrieval control, or wrote about their favorite summer vacation for 20 minutes as a no-retrieval control for 3 consecutive days beginning the day after they viewed the video. All participants received the same memory interview 2 weeks later. Participants who wrote about the video recalled significantly more correct ideas than those in the drawing control and those in the no-retrieval control condition. There was a small but significant increase in the number of recall errors in the writing condition compared to the two control conditions. However, the percent increase in correct recall in the writing condition remained almost identical in an analysis that took both correct and incorrect information into account. Although the amount of correct information recalled increased substantially in the writing condition, the proportion of correct information was greatest in the drawing-retrieval control condition.