Accuracy of Eye Witness Testimony AO3

Question 1

What are the strengths of research into misleading information?

Answer 1

it has real world application:
* it can be applied to real cases as Loftus believed that officers should be careful of how they phrase questions and that judges should’t rely on the evidence of a single eye tesimony
* this means that less innocent people are convicted

Question 2

What are the weaknesses of research into misleading information?

Answer 2

• there is contradicutory research
• it’s affected by individual differences as it can be affected by age

Question 3

What contradictary evidence is there against supporting research into misleading questions

Answer 3

Yuille and Cutshall

Question 4

Describe Yuille’s and Cutshall’s experiment.

for contradictory research against misleading questions research

Answer 4

• they interviewed 13 people 4 months after they witnessed an armed robbery
• despite there being two misleading questions in the interview, recall remained accurate
• misleading questions might not have that much affect on EWT accuracy

Question 5

What evidence is there to support the affect of age on EWT?

Answer 5

Anastasi’s and Rhodes’

Question 6

Describe the findings of Anastasi’s and Rhodes’ experiment.

Answer 6

• they found that participants aged 18-25 and 35-45 were more accurate in their EWT than those aged 55-78
• people were better at identifying people in their own age group (affected by own age bias)
• this shows that the affect of misleading questions isn’t the same for everyone so research into it can’t be generalised as easily

Question 7

What is the strength of research into the affect of anxiety on EWT?

Answer 7

• it can be applied to real life crime as it used a real life situation