ABSTRACT
Testimony regarding conversation is central to the vast majority of criminal and civil cases litigated in the courts. In some cases, testimony may concern relatively public group discussions such as those that might take place in a corporate boardroom. Witnesses to such group interactions must attempt to remember what was said, as well as which member of the group said it and, perhaps, to whom it was said. Some are relatively more private, such as the famous small group conversations among President Richard Nixon, John Dean, and others that became central to the Watergate hearings (Gold, 1974). Others are more private still, occurring between a rape victim and her attacker or between a doctor and patient. Across a variety of circumstances, testimony regarding the specific details of these conversations becomes central to the decisions of the jurors who decide the cases.
