2.4 Factors Affecting EWT & Cognitive Interview

Question 1

What is eyewitness testimony (EWT)?

Answer 1

The ability of people to remember the details of events, which they themselves have observed (e.g accidents and crimes)

Question 2

What 3 factors affect the accuracy of EWT?

Answer 2

• Misleading information
• Leading questions
• Post-event discussion

Question 3

What is misleading information?

Answer 3

Incorrect information given to an eyewitness usually after the event, such as leading questions or post-event discussion

Question 4

What are leading questions?

Answer 4

A question which due to its phrasing, suggests a certain answer

Question 5

What is post-event discussion?

Answer 5

Occurs when there is more than one witness to an event, witnesses may discuss what they have seen with co-witnesses or other people

Question 6

Who carried out the research on leading questions and describe the study

Answer 6

• Loftus and Palmer (1974)
• 45 participants watched film clips of car accidents and were asked questions about the accident
• In critical question participants asked to describe how fast cars were travelling
• 5 groups of participants given different verbs in the question e.g contacted and smashed
• Mean estimated speed for verb ‘contacted’ was 31.8 mph
  -Mean estimated for verb ‘smashed’ was 40.5 mph

Question 7

How do leading questions affect EWT?

Answer 7

• Response-bias explanation: suggests the wording of the question has no real effect on the participants memories, but just influences how they decide to answer

Question 8

How did Loftus and Palmer investigate the substitution explanation?

Answer 8

• Conducted a second experiment which proposed that wording of critical question changes participants memory of the clip
• Participants that heard ‘smashed’ more likely to report seeing broken glass (although there was none) than those who heard hit

Question 9

Who carried out the research on post-event discussion and describe the study

Answer 9

• Gabbert et al (2003)
• Participants studied in pairs, each watched video of same crime but from different POV
• Each saw elements other may not have seen
• Both participants discussed what they had seen before individually completing test of recall
• 71% of participants mistakenly recalled aspects of the event not seen but heard in discussion
• In control group where there was no discussion, this was 0%

Question 10

What are the 2 explanations for why post-event discussion affects EWT?

Answer 10

- Memory contamination: when witnesses combine misinformation from other witnesses with their own memories

- Memory conformity: when witnesses go along with each other to win social approval or because they believe others are right

Question 11

What is the difference between memory contamination and memory conformity?

Answer 11

Unlike memory contamination, with memory conformity the actual memory is unchanged

Question 12

AO3 for misleading information

Answer 12

1. Research support: practical uses in criminal justice system, consequences of inaccurate EWT can be damaging, Loftus (1975) believes leading questions can distort memories, police officers have to be careful when phrasing questions when interviewing, psychologists asked to act as expert witnesses in court cases, can help to improve the legal system, protect innocent people from faulty convictions based on unreliable EWT
Counterpoint: Loftus and Palmer’s participants watched film clips in a lab, a very different experience from witnessing a real event, Foster et al stated what witnesses remember has important consequences in real world however responses in research do not matter as much, participants less motivated to be accurate

2. Evidence against substitution: EWT more accurate for some aspects rather than others, Sutherland and Hayne (2001) showed participants a clip, when later asked misleading questions their recall was more accurate for central details of the event than for peripheral ones, attention focused on central features of event and they were resistant to misleading information, original memories for central details not distorted, not predicted by substitution explanation

3. Evidence challenging memory conformity: there is evidence that post-event discussion actually alters EWT, Skagerberg and Wright (2008) showed participants film clips, two versions: muggers hair was dark brown in one and light brown in the other, participants discussed what they had seen in pairs, they reported a blend of the two clips rather than what they or the co-witness had seen, memory is distorted by contamination rather than memory conformity

Question 13

What are the 2 main factors that affect EWT?

Answer 13

• Misleading information
• Anxiety

Question 14

What is anxiety?

Answer 14

A state of emotional and physical arousal

Question 15

Who carried out the research on the negative effect of anxiety and describe the study

Answer 15

• Johnson and Scott (1976)
• Participants believed they were participating in lab study
• While seated in waiting room, participants on low anxiety condition heard a casual conversation and saw a man pass with a pen and grease on his hands
• High anxiety condition heard heated argument, accompanied by sound of smashing glass and man holding knife covered in blood
• Participants asked to pick out man from 50 photos
• 49% who had seen man carrying pen were able to identify him
• 33% who had seen man carrying blood-covered knife were able to identify him

Question 16

Who carried out the research on the positive effect of anxiety and describe the study

Answer 16

• Yuille and Cutshall (1986)
• Studied a shooting that occurred in a gun shop in Canada where the shop owner shot a thief dead
• 21 witnesses-13 took part in study
• Interviews from 4-5 months after compared to original police interviews
• Accuracy determined by number of details reported in each account
• Witnesses asked to rate stress at time of incident and report any emotional problems since
• Witnesses very accurate in reports, little change in amount recalled/accuracy after 5 months
• Those with highest levels of stress more accurate, 88% compared to 75% for less stressed group

Question 17

What does the tunnel theory of memory suggest?

Answer 17

People have enhanced memory for central events

Question 18

Describe how anxiety negatively affects recall

Answer 18

Anxiety creates physiological arousal in the body which prevents us paying attention to important cues, so recall is worse

Question 19

Describe how anxiety positively affects recall

Answer 19

Anxiety creates physiological arousal which triggers fight or flight response, this increases alertness and we become more aware of cues

Question 20

What does the Yerkes-Dodson law state?

Answer 20

The relationship between emotional arousal and performance looks like inverted U (performance will increase with stress, but only to a certain point where it decreases drastically)

Question 21

AO3 for anxiety (factors affecting EWT)

Answer 21

1. Unusualness not anxiety: Johnson and Scott may not have measured anxiety, participants may have focused on weapon as they were surprised rather than scared, Pickel (1998) conducted experiment with scissors, handgun, wallet and raw chicken. EWT accuracy poorer in high unusualness conditions e.g chicken and handgun, weapon focus tells us nothing specifically about effects of anxiety

2. Support for negative effects: Valentine and Mesout (2009) support research on weapon focus, used objective measure (heart rate) to divide participants into high and low anxiety groups, anxiety clearly disrupted ability to recall details about specific actor

3. Support for positive affects: Christianson and Hubinette (1993) interviewed 58 witnesses to actual bank robberies in Sweden, some witnesses were directly involved whereas some involved indirectly, researchers assumed those directly involed would experience most anxiety, recall was more than 75% accurate across all witnesses, the direct victims were most accurate, anxiety may even enhance recall
Counterpoint: interviewed participants several months after event, had no control over intervening events e.g post-event discussions, effect of anxiety may be overwhelmed by these factors, lack of control over confounding variables

Question 22

What is cognitive interview?

Answer 22

A method of interviewing eyewitnesses to help them retrieve more accurate memories

Question 23

What are the 4 main techniques of cognitive interview?

Answer 23

1. Report everything
2. Reinstate the context
3. Reverse the order
4. Change the perspective

Question 24

Describe the ‘Report everything’ technique

Answer 24

Witnesses encouraged to report every single detail of the event, though it may seem irrelevant as they may trigger other important memories

Question 25

Describe the ‘Reinstate the context’ technique

Answer 25

Witnesses should return to original crime scene in their mind and imagine their environment and emotions

Question 26

Describe the ‘Reverse the order’ technique

Answer 26

• Events should be recalled in different order from original sequence
• Prevents people from reporting their expectations of how the event must have happened instead of the actual event

Question 27

Describe the ‘Change the perspective’ technique

Answer 27

• Witnesses should recall the incident from other peoples perspectives
• Disrupts the effect of expectations and the schema on recall

Question 28

Who developed the enhanced cognitive interview and what does it state?

Answer 28

• Fischer (1987)
• Interviewer should know when to establish and relinquish eye contact
• Includes reducing eyewitness anxiety, minimising distractions, asking open-ended questions

Question 29

AO3 for cognitive interview

Answer 29

1. Support for the effectiveness of CI: Kohnken et al (1999) meta-analysis combined data from 55 studies comparing CI and ECI with standard interview, Ci gave an average 41% increase in accurate information compared with standard interview, only four studies in the analysis showed no difference, CI is an effective technique in helping witnesses recall that is not immediately accessible
Counterpoint: Kohken found increase in accurate information reported with ECI, cognitive interviews sacrifice quality of EWT in favour of quantity, EWT evidence should be treated with caution

2. Some elements more useful: Milne and Bull (2002) found four techniques used alone produced more information than standard police interview, combination of ‘report everything’ and ‘reinstate the context’ produced better recall than any other elements or combination, increases doubt about credibility of overall CI

3. CI is time-consuming: takes more time and training than standard police interview, more time needed to establish rapport with witness allowing them to relax, many forces do not have resources to provide more than a few hours of the special training needed for CI, CI is not a realistic method for police officers, may be better to just focus on a few elements