Comparison of Recall by Policemen and Civilians under Conditions of Long and Short Durations of Exposure

Abstract

In a field situation policemen and civilians were asked to recall details of a target person to whom they had spoken 30 sec. earlier. The target person had either (a) asked for the time (Short Exposure) or (b) asked for directions (Longer Exposure). Over-all police were significantly more accurate than civilians but only at longer exposure intervals, there being no difference at short exposure. The number of errors by civilians and police did not differ but there was a significant interaction due to police being poorer at shorter intervals than longer intervals of exposure and civilians being poorer at longer intervals than shorter. Civilians produced more ‘no answers’ than police over all, with no difference for civilians between long and short durations but police giving more after short than after longer exposure. These results were interpreted in terms of qualitative and quantitative differences in processing capacity of police and civilians.