6.4 Key Q: Is EWT too unreliable to trust?

Question 1

What is the key question?

Answer 1

Is EWT too unreliable to trust?

Question 2

Why is this issue important?

Answer 2

• The Innocence Project (2015) found 72% of wrongful convictions were partly/ wholly due to EW misidentification
• Devlin Report (1976)- Courts should be wary of using EWT as sole evidence in the abscence of other evidence
  1) Ppl may be falsley accused, society may lose confidence in victims + be prejudiced towards wrongly convicted
  2) Allows us to develop better retrieval techniques eg cog intervs
• Case of Ronald Cotton- falsely accused of SA by Jennifer Thomson-Cannino, served 10 years in prison, could’ve been avoided w better EW procedures
• Juries > Tversky + Fisher (1977)- Tend to rely on EWT when coming to a verdict, esp when forensic evidence is hard to follow

Question 3

Describe how post-event information can cause unreliable EWT

Answer 3

• Post-event info >Witnesses are often interviewed over a period of time after the event in which they may be exposed to information they did not already have eg other EWs, media, police
• Reconstructive mem >Info remembered can be changed due to confabulation/ rationalisation of events that don’t conform to an individuals schema eg.Ews fill in gaps w info from their schemas that makes sense to them, often comes through leading Q’s

Question 4

Using the acronym ‘EACH’, evaluate a ‘supporting evidence’ point of post-event information changing the accuracy of EWT.

Answer 4

P - Loftus and Palmer (1974) supports
E - They found that when asking ppts how fast a car was going, ppts were more likely to estimate higher speeds with “smashed” as opposed to “contacted”
E - Therefore showing that using a leading question will suggest to the witness something is different than what they remembered and so they will assume they forgot or got it wrong, can lead to deception!! decr reliability of EWT

Question 5

Using the acronym ‘EACH’, evaluate a ‘rejecting evidence’ point of post-event information changing the accuracy of EWT.

Answer 5

P - Yuille and Cutshall (1986) reject
E - They found that when interviewing witnesses 5 months after the crime using leading questions they still recalled events accurately
E - Therefore refuting the idea that post-event information will alter a witnesses memory

Question 6

EACH- A (post event)

Answer 6

P - Yes
E - It suggests that when gathering EWT accounts the police should avoid leading questions and post-event info
E - Therefore accounts will be more reliable and techniques such as the cognitive interview use these methods to ensure a detailed accurate account

Question 7

EACH- C (post event)

Answer 7

P - Flashbulb memory can be used as an alternative explanation
E - It states that a memory with high levels of stress due to significance will be remembered accurately in a lot of detail
E - Therefore it suggests that if you are very stressed you will remember everything in detail due to its impact

Question 8

EACH-H (post event)

Answer 8

1) P - Lab research lacks ecological validity
E - It assesses EWT in artificial, controlled conditions such as Loftus and Palmer (1974) asking ppts to watch a video
E - This does not reflect real life situations whereby witnesses will not already be focused on the event
2) P - High levels of control over EVs
E - This is problematic due to real life cases involving EVs that would affect what a witness remembers and how well
E - Therefore highly controlled experiments do not reflect what is remembered and how well in real life due to factors such as attention affecting it

Question 9

Describe how weapon focus can cause unreliable eyewitness testimony.

Answer 9

• If there is a weapon present at a crime then witnesses will focus attention on that
• Attentional narrowing leaves no attention for things happening in a witnesses peripheral vision where valuable parts of the crime may be taking place
• Yerkes-Dodson Law can explain this through stress arousal whereby the presence of a weapon may lead to over-arousal and so mem accuracy will decr

Question 10

Using the acronym ‘EACH’, evaluate a ‘supporting evidence’ point of weapon focus changing the accuracy of EWT.

Answer 10

P - Pickel (1998) supports
E - Found that ppts who saw a video of a man walking into a hair salon with conditions of handgun or raw chicken showed the poorest memory recall
E - This supports the idea that a weapon will lead to over-arousal of stress eg handgun, under-arousal eg raw chicken and so under-performance of memory recall due to going over or not reaching optimum stress level

Question 11

Using the acronym ‘EACH’, evaluate a ‘rejecting evidence’ point of weapon focus changing the accuracy of EWT.

Answer 11

Wagstaff (2003) rejects due to finding no evidence of a weapon affecting recall accuracy in real life police reports where interviews were compared against police description of primary suspect.

Question 12

EACH- A (weapons focus)

Answer 12

P - Yes
E - It states that if there is a weapon present the witness will focus their attention on that and become very stressed
E - Therefore police need to take this into account when interviewingeg ask q’s about smells, noises etc outside of EWs peripheral vision of the weapon

Question 13

EACH- C (weapons focus)

Answer 13

P - Flashbulb memory can be used as an alternative explanation
E - It states that a memory with high levels of stress due to significance will be remembered accurately in a lot of detail
E - Therefore it suggests that if you are very stressed you will remember everything in detail due to its impact, rejects factor of weapons focus

Question 14

EACH- H (weapons focus)

Answer 14

P- Research lab based/ lab exps
E- Tend to decr pp engagement due to pps knowing they’re part of a study
E- W, less emotional involvement so will pay less attention due to it not affecting them IRL, doesn’t accurately reflect how EWs accuracy of mem recall would act under the factor of weapons focus

Question 15

Describe stress and arousal as a factor affecting reliability of EWT.

Answer 15

• Witnesses are placed under stress when witnessing an event
• Yerkes-Dodson Law states that there is an optimum level of stress arousal in a situation that leads to the best memory performance. As arousal incr, mem accuracy improves, but after optimum is reached, arousal will continue to incr but mem accuracy will decr
• Eg trauma experienced by EWTs from crime may lead to optimum stress arousal when recalling but then mem accuracy will decr

Question 16

Using the acronym ‘EACH’, evaluate a ‘supporting evidence’ point of stress/arousal changing the accuracy of EWT.

Answer 16

P - Valentine and Mesout (2009) support
E - They found that when ppts were scared in the London Dungeons they showed high levels of anxiety which reduced their accuracy in identifying the perpetrator
E - This supports stress as a factor as it provides evidence for Yerkes-Dodson law, the memory recall of EWs is more accurate when reaching the stress optimal from the London Dungeons jumpscare, suggesting that the emotional state of an EW is a factor affecting accuracy of recall in EWT

Question 17

Using the acronym ‘EACH’, evaluate a ‘rejecting evidence’ point of stress/arousal changing the accuracy of EWT.

Answer 17

P - Yuille and Cutshall (1986) reject this theory
E - They found that EWs w higher lvls of arousal = more accuracte in recall of real incident
E- Supports, Yuille and Cuthsall has high ext V due to evaluating real-life EW recall w factor of stress, demonstartes arousal/stress being a factor affecting EWT.

Question 18

EACH-A (stress & arousal)

Answer 18

P - Yes
E - It suggests that when gathering EWT accounts the police should also measure their stress level
E - However this can be limited as it doesn’t suggest ways to improve the accuracy due to not being able to advise people to reach the optimum level of arousal

Question 19

EACH-C (stress & arousal)

Answer 19

P - Arousal is difficult to operationalise
E - It can result from anxiety or fear or increased alertness
E - Therefore this makes comparisons difficult due to having inconsistent definers for arousal

Question 20

EACH-H (stress & arousal)

Answer 20

P - Valentine and Mesout (2009) had high ecological validity
E - It took place in a natural setting whereby ppts weren’t aware they were in a study
E - Meaning that findings would be accurate to stress affecting EWT in a real life situation