Cruz, Juan J
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Audience: Undergraduate. -- Dissertation: Thesis (B. A.). -- Algoma University, 1999. -- Submitted in partial fulfillment of course requirements for PSYC 4105. -- Includes figures and tables. -- Contents: Literature review / Thesis.
This experiment examined the effects of repeated exposure of a subject characteristic on eyewitness testimony; research on the availability heuristic suggests such repeated exposure should bias memory. Undergraduate psychology students witnessed an incident in which an unknown actor portraying a student temporarily disrupted a class in progress. Following the class, participants viewed a short slide show displaying "mug shots". One group viewed a slide show in which 70% of the mug shots depicted men with facial hair; a second group saw shots in which 10% had facial hair. Immediately following the slide show, participants completed a questionnaire covering the physical appearance of the actor, including the critical question of whether he had facial hair. Participants were re-tested a week later. Facial memories of the experimental group were not significantly altered by the exposure to an increase in common characteristics of the pictures.
