Can metamemory judgements predict the risk of memory contamination for facial descriptions?

Purpose
The current study examined the role of eyewitness metamemory in predicting participants’ memory accuracy and risk of misinformation acceptance when describing previously encountered faces.

Methods
In an online experiment, participants (N = 1036) observed the faces of a female and male target before completing the Eyewitness Metamemory Scale. Participants then encountered descriptions of the targets from previous participants which depending on the experimental condition, either contained misinformation about the target's features or did not include any misinformation. Participants were later asked to describe the targets’ facial appearances through free recall and closed questions.

Results
A misinformation acceptance effect was observed in closed questions and free recall memory reports of both targets, with a greater effect observed for additory misinformation. Weak predictive associations were observed between metamemory scores and misinformation acceptance, such that greater memory contentment was associated with misinformation acceptance. Additionally, data from the no-misinformation group suggested that metamemory was unable to predict general recall accuracy for faces.

Conclusions
Implications of the findings suggest that post-event information could potentially mislead witnesses and highlight the need for such risks to be detected during investigations.