EXAMINING THE EFFECTS OF CHANGES IN DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMATOLOGY ON EYEWITNESS IDENTIFICATION

Being a victim-witness often instigates the use of counseling services, which could cause a shift in affect, and according to mood dependent memory theories, any change in mood should be detrimental to eyewitness accuracy. However, no research has specifically examined how changes in depressive symptomatology affect eyewitness accuracy. Thus in this study, participants (N = 173) were exposed to 12 target faces at a first session and returned two to four weeks later to identify these faces from 12 six-person simultaneous line-ups. At both sessions, participants completed measures of anxious and depressive symptomatology. As predicted, individuals who exhibited stable dysphoria from eyewitness event to the line-up task performed significantly better on the simultaneous line-ups than the other stability groups. Among participants exhibiting unstable dysphoria, people whose depressive symptomatology improved rather than worsened were the most accurate.