Citation

Burt CDB, Popple JS. Appl. Cogn. Psychol. 1996; 10(1): 53-63.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1996, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/(SICI)1099-0720(199602)10:1<53::AID-ACP362>3.0.CO;2-S

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Two experiments investigated the effect of manipulating the implied speed of an individual's actions on estimation of event duration. Experiment 1 requested duration estimates from eyewitnesses to a staged event. Three groups of subjects participated, and each was provided with different postevent information, which varied the implied speed of the individual that acted out the event. Results indicated that subjects who were led to believe the actor engaged in fast actions (e.g. running) generated significantly shorter duration estimates than those led to believe the speed of the actor was slow (e.g. the actor walked). Experiment 2 manipulated implied action speed by varying the commands given by a robber during a bank robbery. The marked sound track contained phrases such as 'hurry up', 'come on', 'now!' which imply that the bank tellers, to whom the commands were directed, had a slow action speed. The unmarked sound track contained the same number of words as the marked tape, but they did not emphasize action speed. Both versions of the video had the same actual duration. Results indicated that subjects shown the marked video gave significantly longer duration estimates, than those shown the unmarked video. The results are discussed in terms of the reconstruction of event duration, and implications for assessing the accuracy of eyewitness testimony.

Language: en