The effects of question type and eyewitness temperament on accuracy and quantity of recall for a simulated misdemeanor crime

The present study examined the effect of question format on accuracy and quantity of testimony. Forty college students’ memory for a videotaped theft was assessed through open-ended or multiple-choice questionnaires. High accuracy was found for central information elicited with an open-ended questionnaire and for peripheral information elicited with a multiple-choice questionnaire. Quantity was higher for central than for peripheral features and was higher with multiplechoice than with open-ended questionnaires. Lipton’s (1977) notion of an inverse relationship between accuracy and quantity due to cognitive set was modified in order to incorporate the role question format had on different types of information. Several witness temperament characteristics were associated with central and peripheral recall using multiple-choice questionnaires.