Associate Professor of Psychology Amy Overman’s peer-reviewed research article, "Age differences and schema effects in memory for crime information" has been published by the journal Experimental Aging Research.
This research is the first to investigate how pre-conceived ideas (schemas) affect older adults’ memory for specific details of a crime. It found that reduced cognitive capacity results in more reliance on schemas when processing crime information. The research has important real-world implications given that older adults are often eyewitnesses to crimes and may be asked to testify in legal settings in which reliance on schemas could lead to errors and false memories that affect court proceedings.
This research is co-authored with Kimberly Duggins Wiseman ’10 and is based on her Honors project. Additional co-authors are Meredith Allison in the Department of Psychology and Joseph D.W. Stephens of North Carolina A&T State University.
Experimental Aging Research is a well-ranked international, interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal that is “devoted to the scientific study of the aging process.”