accuracy of ewt - misleading info Flashcards
what is eye witness testimony (EWT)?
when an individual that witnesses a crime or accident is asked to recall information about the event.
what is meant by misleading information?
incorrect information given to an eyewitness after an event has taken place (also post-event info). can be in the form of leading questions or post event discussion
Loftus and Palmer- critical verb
video of a simulated car crash, asked ppts the leading question ‘how fast were the cars going when they contacted/hit/bumped/collided/smashed? ppts with ‘hit’ estimated around 34mph, while ppts with ‘smashed’ estimated around 41mph. shows that wording of questions can manipulate someone’s recall of an event.
also asked ppts if they has seen any broken glass. ‘hit’ 14% said yes, ‘smashed’ 32% said yes, even though there was no broken glass.
what is the response bias explanation?
the wording of the question encourages ppts to respond with what they think wants to be heard, no real effect on memory.
what is the substitution explanation?
memory was actually changed by the leading questions.
what is post-event discussion?
when crimes are witnessed by multiple people who often discuss what they see, which can alter their own memory of an event.
Gabbert et al. - PED
studied pairs of ppts, each ppt watched a video of a crime from different angles and saw different elements of the video, then both ppts discussed what they had seen. 71% of ppts mistakenly recalled details that they had not seen, 0% of the control group recalled anything they hadn’t seen. suggests post event discussion can alter someone’s memory of an event.
what is memory contamination ?
when after discussion of an event, an individuals memories are actually altered and other witnesses memories are combined with their own.
what is memory conformity?
when witnesses of an event go along with each other to gain approval or because they believe the other witness is correct. their memory is unchanged.
+AO3 - RWA
Loftus’ research has been used in real life to improve EWT. previously police and judges relied solely on EWT meaning that innocent people would often be convicted, however now they are aware of misleading information they make sure to have sufficient evidence before conviction. this is a strength as research into misleading information has been useful and made improvements in real world situations.
-AO3 - artificial stimuli
being shown videos is very different to actually witnessing a crime, people may be more motivated to recall correctly as they see the importance of doing so in the situation of a real crime, whereas with a video they know there are no significant consequences for recalling incorrectly. this is a limitation because it limits the practical applications of misleading information as it may not alter peoples memories in real life situations.
-AO3 - Zaragoza and McCloskey
suggest that data is due to demand characteristics. most studies for researching misleading information were lab studies. ppts want to be helpful and provide meaningful data to a researcher, so may change responses or guess when they aren’t sure about something. this is a weakness as the research therefore lacks external validity, meaning it may not be appliable to real life situations involving EWT.
