12 - ewt (misleading information)

Question 1

define eye witness testimony

Answer 1

the ability of people to remember the details of events such as accidents and crimes which they have observed

Question 2

what was loftus and palmers task?

Answer 2

participants watched videos of car accidents and were then given questions to answer about them afterwards.

Question 3

how many groups were there in loftus and palmers study

Answer 3

5

Question 4

what was the question each group was asked in loftus and palmers study?

Answer 4

how fast were the cars going when they ___ into each other

Question 5

what different verb did each of the five groups in loftus and palmers study get?

Answer 5

hit, contacted, bumped, smashed and collided

Question 6

what did loftus and palmers find when they changed the verb?

Answer 6

the mean speed estimated also changed

Question 7

in loftus and palmers study, the estimate mean speed for contacted was what?

Answer 7

31.8 mph

Question 8

in loftus and palmers study, the mean speed estimated for smashed was what?

Answer 8

40.5mph

Question 9

what does a leading question do?

Answer 9

puts ideas or words into people’s minds. wording for the question has no real effect on participants memories, just influences how they decide to answer

Question 10

what did loftus and palmer test in their second experiment?

Answer 10

the substitution explanation (when they begin making false memories)

Question 11

what was the result of loftus and palmers second study?

Answer 11

they found that those who hear the word smashed were more likely to report seeing broken glass when in fact there wasn’t any

Question 12

what can happen during post event discussion?

Answer 12

their eye witness testimony might become contaminated if witnesses discuss the event with each other. this is because they combine information, some of which is not true

Question 13

who studied post event discussion?

Answer 13

gabbert

Question 14

how did gabbert organise her participantsvl

Answer 14

in pairs

Question 15

what was the task in gabbert’s study?

Answer 15

each participant watched a video of the same crime but filmed from different points of view so they picked up on different details

Question 16

gabbert found that what percent of participants mistakenly recalled aspects of the event that they did not see in the video but had picked up through post event discussion with their partner?

Answer 16

71%

Question 17

did the control group in gabberts study recall details from post event discussion?

Answer 17

no

Question 18

gabbert concluded that witnesses often go along with eachother to win what?

Answer 18

social approval

Question 19

what is memory conformity?

Answer 19

when witnesses go along with each other to win social approval

Question 20

who studied false memories using leading questions?

Answer 20

seema clifasefi et al

Question 21

what was clifasefi et al’s document?

Answer 21

gave participants a document claiming to be a personalised food and drink profile, supposedly put together by a powerful computer software based on participants earlier responses to a questionnaire

Question 22

what false information did one group have in clifasefi et al’s document?

Answer 22

when they were 16 they got so drunk they were sick

Question 23

what was the task in clifasefi et al’s study after receiving the document?

Answer 23

later the participants completed a memory test in which the leading question asked when they had become sick from drinking too much alcohol

Question 24

what did clifasefi et al find after asking the leading question?

Answer 24

a significant number of the participants recalled being sick due to drinking too much alcohol at the age of 16. some even claimed that they now did not enjoy drinking certain alcoholic drinks because of an experience that never existed

Question 25

how can misleading information in ewt be applied to real life police investigations and the legal system? (strength)

Answer 25

loftus believes that leading questions can have such a distorting effect on memory that police officers must be very careful about how they phrase their questions. psychologists believe that by not allowing the use of leading questions, the whole legal system can be improved

Question 26

how is the artificial task in loftus and palmers study a weakness?

Answer 26

participants watched film clips rather than real accidents, may have had an effect due to the amount of stress experienced during a real accident compared to watching a video. causes doubt over the external reliability

Question 27

how is individual differences and anastasi and rhodes a weakness of misleading information in eye witness reports?

Answer 27

there is evidence that older people are less accurate than younger people when giving eye witness reports. anastasi and rhodes found that people in age groups 18-25 and 35-45 were more accurate than people in the age group 55-78. however, all age groups were more accurate when identifying people their own age (own age bias)