Remembering with a Friend or a Stranger - couple data.sav

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findings show that collaborative interviews with pairs of eyewitnesses can
result in more accurate testimony than individual interviews, and that partners
remember more together if they acknowledge, repeat, rephrase and elaborate upon
each other’s contributions. In the present study, we investigated whether these
findings differ for pairs of acquainted and unacquainted partners, respectively.
Participants viewed a violent movie in the cinema and took part in three
eyewitness interviews approximately five days later. The first and the last
interview were always individual. The second interview was individual in the
nominal condition (N = 22 pairs),
collaborative with a known partner in the acquainted condition (N = 21 pairs), or collaborative with a
stranger in the unacquainted condition (N
= 20 pairs). We replicated benefits of collaborative eyewitness interviews,
in terms of error pruning as well as delayed cross-cuing. However, we found no significant
differences between acquainted and unacquainted pairs, neither in recall
performance nor in retrieval strategies during the collaborative interview.
Regardless of acquaintance, pairs who listened to and elaborated upon each
other’s contributions during the collaborative interview, remembered more
together. The findings are evaluated within the theoretical framework of
transactive memory. Practical implications for investigative interviewers are
discussed.