2.4: Eyewitness testimony (EWT) Flashcards
A psychologist was at a concert where someone threw a bottle onto the stage and seriously injured one of the band members. The psychologist decided to use this incident to investigate the accuracy of eye witness testimony. She asked 10 people who saw the bottle being thrown, if they would allow her to interview them about this. A week later she interviewed each witness separately in a quiet room and asked them the same closed questions about what they had seen. She recorded their answers. It took her two and a half hours in total to interview the 10 witnesses.
Calculate how many hours it would have taken the psychologist to interview all 1000 people who were at the event (2 marks).
Show your workings
2.5 x 100 = 250 hours
A psychologist was at a concert where someone threw a bottle onto the stage and seriously injured one of the band members. The psychologist decided to use this incident to investigate the accuracy of eye witness testimony. She asked 10 people who saw the bottle being thrown, if they would allow her to interview them about this. A week later she interviewed each witness separately in a quiet room and asked them the same closed questions about what they had seen. She recorded their answers. It took her two and a half hours in total to interview the 10 witnesses.
Identify one type of data the psychologist collected in this study (2 marks).
Explain your answer
Primary data, because the data was collected by the psychologist specifically for the purpose of the investigation
A psychologist was at a concert where someone threw a bottle onto the stage and seriously injured one of the band members. The psychologist decided to use this incident to investigate the accuracy of eye witness testimony. She asked 10 people who saw the bottle being thrown, if they would allow her to interview them about this. A week later she interviewed each witness separately in a quiet room and asked them the same closed questions about what they had seen. She recorded their answers. It took her two and a half hours in total to interview the 10 witnesses.
Investigator effects may influence this study.
Explain how the investigation might be modified to reduce these effects (2 marks)
She could use open-ended questions, so that the interviewees were able to give a more detailed and accurate version of what they saw
A psychologist was at a concert where someone threw a bottle onto the stage and seriously injured one of the band members. The psychologist decided to use this incident to investigate the accuracy of eye witness testimony. She asked 10 people who saw the bottle being thrown, if they would allow her to interview them about this. A week later she interviewed each witness separately in a quiet room and asked them the same closed questions about what they had seen. She recorded their answers. It took her two and a half hours in total to interview the 10 witnesses.
Investigator effects may influence this study.
Explain how the investigation might be modified to reduce these effects (2 marks).
She could use open-ended questions, so that the interviewees were able to give a more detailed and accurate version of what they saw.
What could she use to collect the data without face to face interaction?
She could use a questionnaire (or other means) to collect the data without face to face interaction
A psychologist was at a concert where someone threw a bottle onto the stage and seriously injured one of the band members. The psychologist decided to use this incident to investigate the accuracy of eye witness testimony. She asked 10 people who saw the bottle being thrown, if they would allow her to interview them about this. A week later she interviewed each witness separately in a quiet room and asked them the same closed questions about what they had seen. She recorded their answers. It took her two and a half hours in total to interview the 10 witnesses.
The psychologist submitted a report of her investigation to a journal for peer review.
What would she expect the process to involve? (2 marks)
Her report would be sent for independent scrutiny to be reviewed by other psychologists
A psychologist was at a concert where someone threw a bottle onto the stage and seriously injured one of the band members. The psychologist decided to use this incident to investigate the accuracy of eye witness testimony. She asked 10 people who saw the bottle being thrown, if they would allow her to interview them about this. A week later she interviewed each witness separately in a quiet room and asked them the same closed questions about what they had seen. She recorded their answers. It took her two and a half hours in total to interview the 10 witnesses.
The psychologist submitted a report of her investigation to a journal for peer review.
What would she expect the process to involve? (2 marks).
Her report would be sent for independent scrutiny to be reviewed by other psychologists.
What would they consider, for example?
They would consider, for example, validity, ethics, errors and possible improvements
A psychologist was at a concert where someone threw a bottle onto the stage and seriously injured one of the band members. The psychologist decided to use this incident to investigate the accuracy of eye witness testimony. She asked 10 people who saw the bottle being thrown, if they would allow her to interview them about this. A week later she interviewed each witness separately in a quiet room and asked them the same closed questions about what they had seen. She recorded their answers. It took her two and a half hours in total to interview the 10 witnesses.
The psychologist submitted a report of her investigation to a journal for peer review.
What would she expect the process to involve? (2 marks).
Her report would be sent for independent scrutiny to be reviewed by other psychologists.
They would consider, for example, validity, ethics, errors and possible improvements, to see what?
They would consider, for example, validity, ethics, errors and possible improvements, to see whether it should be published
