Accuracy of EWT- Misleading Information Flashcards
What is a leading question?
A question that suggests to the witness what answer is desired, leading them to the desired answer
Loftus and Palmer study 1 - PROCEDURE
45 students shown 7 different films of tragic accidents
-Asked “how fast were the cars going when they ‘hit’ eachother?”
-‘hit’ was replaced with words of different extremity:
smashed, collided, bumped, hit, contacted
Loftus and Palmer study 1 - FINDINGS
As the words got more extreme, the ppts reported the speed to be faster
Smashed- 41mph
Collided- 39mph
Bumped- 38mph
Hit- 34mph
Contacted- 31mph
Loftus and Palmer study 2 - PROCEDURE
New set of ppts
-divided into 3 groups
-shown a car accident
-asked same questions
-also asked ‘did you see any broken glass?’
Loftus and Palmer study 2 - FINDINGS
The people who were asked the question with more extreme words (and therefore thought the car was going faster) also REPORTED SEEING BROKEN GLASS
-There wasn’t actually any broken glass
Who was post event discussion researched by?
Gabbert
Post event discussion - Conformity Effect
-Ppts put in pairs
-each partner watched a separate video of the same event. (so saw different objects)
-half of the pairs were encouraged to discuss the event with their partner before recalling the event the next day
-The witnesses who had discussed the event with their pair went on to recall objects that weren’t in their video
Post event discussion - Repeat interviewing
Each time a ppt is interviewed there is a chance that the interviewers comments will effect the ppts recollection of events
-interviewer may ask leading questions and alter the individuals memory of the event
AO3 +
Supporting evidence
Support for the research on the effect of misleading information
-Loftus’ Bugs Bunny study
-college students who had been to Disneyland as kids were asked to evaluate adverts about Disneyland
-these adverts contained misleading info about Bugs Bunny (who IS NOT in Disneyland)
-These students still reported shaking hands with him even though he couldn’t have been there
AO3 +
Real-world application
Used in the justice system
-psychological research has warned the justice system of issues with EWT
-it helped to prevent innocent people being convicted due to incorrect EWT results, and led to police being more cautious when using it
AO3 -
Order effect
Replicated Loftus and Palmer’s study
-found that ppts are only effected by misleading information if the questions are presented in a random order
-when Loftus presented the questions in a random order, accuracy was much worse than in other studies where the questions were given in chronological order
-therefore, poor accuracy may have been due to the question order rather than misleading info
AO3 -
Individual differences
Elderly people have worse memory than younger people
-they may therefore be more prone to misleading information
-the problem therefore may not be with EWT, but instead with the people taking part in it
