Getting Some Sleep Doesn ’t Make Eyewitnesses Any Better At Identifying Suspects

By Emily Reynolds We tend to think of sleep as a positive thing. Not enough of it, and we suffer: our moods drop, and we find it harder to both concentrate on what’s in front of us and remember what’s happened. Being well-rested, on the other hand, is associated with greater ability to communicate, to achievement at home and at work, and to superior recollection of previously learned facts or events. Based on what we already know about the benefits of sleep on memory it may seem obvious that going to bed would also help eyewitnesses identify those they had seen perpetrate crimes. But in a new study, published in Royal Society Open Science, researchers found no such association: it was confidence, not being well-rested, that made a difference. The team, led by David Morgan from the University of Heidelberg, asked 2,000 participants to watch a 35-second-long video clip of a man stealing a laptop from an empty office; his face was visible throughout the clip. After a distractor task, in which they were asked to unjumble anagrams of US states, half of the participants were asked to wait twelve hours before picking the perpetrator from a line-up.The other half also completed the identification twelve hours later — but only after they had gone to sleep. Findings from previous literature suggested that this second group might perform better. But, in fact, sleep did not improve memory: participants who had gone to sleep before identifying guilty suspects were just as likely to...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Memory Sleep and dreaming Source Type: blogs