6.1.7 Factors Influencing Eye Witness Testimony

Question 1

EWT

Answer 1

Evidence given by people who witnessed a crime. E.g. sequence of events.

Question 2

1. Post Event Information

Answer 2

• Misinformation, real info and false info is blended
• Leading questions, lead to wrong remembrance
• Schemas, may confabulate, rationalise or simplify based on schemas

Question 3

Strength of Post Event Info

Answer 3

Loftus and Palmer
- 40.8 smashed
- 34.0 hit
- Shows leading questions can impact how we perceive the event afterwards
- 16/50 smashed
- 7/50 hit

Question 4

Weakness of Post Event Info

Answer 4

Yuille and Cutshall
- After 5 months and 2 leading questions about broken headlight
- 10/13 reported no broken headlight
- New info has no impact

Question 5

Strength of misinformation

Answer 5

Gabbert
- 71% referred to details they couldn’t have seen after a crime

Question 6

Weakness of Misinformation

Answer 6

Loftus
- 98% remembered right bag colour
- No effect when misinformation is blatantly wrong

Question 7

2. Weapon Focus

Answer 7

Concentration on weapon and the reduction in concentration of other details of the crime.

Question 8

Strength of Weapon Focus

Answer 8

Johnson and Scott
- 2 groups
- One heard quiet discussion and saw man with pen (49% correct identification)
- One heard loud argument and saw man with knife (33% correct identification)
- Focus on weapon because it’s threatening takes away from identification of person and therefore other crime details

Question 9

Weakness of Weapon Focus

Answer 9

Flashbulb Memories
- Highly emotionally significant moments lead to high detail memories

Question 10

3. Stress and Arousal

Answer 10

Yerkes-Dodson Law. Increase in arousal improves performance up to a point. Under and over arousal may lead to decline in memory.

Question 11

Strength of Stress and Arousal

Answer 11

Valentine and Mesout
- High anxiety levels reduce ability to identify perpetrator
- Emotional fear state influences reliability of eyewitness testimony

Question 12

Weakness of Stress and Arousal

Answer 12

Criticism
- Hard to operationalise
- Hard to compare
- Different definers for arousal and stress levels