Accuracy of the Eye-witness Testimony Flashcards
What 2 factors affect the accuracy of the Eye-Witness Testimony?
Misleading information
Anxiety
What is the Eye-Witness Testimony (EWT)?
The ability of people to remember the details of events that they themselves have observed
What are the 2 types of misleading information?
Leading questions
Post-event discussion
What is the main study into leading questions?
Loftus & Palmer (1974)
45 students shown a video of a car accident
Participants asked how fast car was going when they hit each other - verb hit replaced
Contacted = mean estimate of 32mph
Smashed - mean estimate of 40.5mph
What are the 2 reasons why leading questions affect EWT?
Response bias explanation
Substitution explanation
What is the response bias explanation?
Suggests the wording has no real affect on memory but affects how the participants answer
What is the substitution explanation?
The wording alters the participant’s memory
How is the substitution explanation supported?
Loftus & Palmer (1974) - broken glass - “smashed” & “hit”
Loftus & Zanni (1975) - broken headlight - “a” or “the”
What did Loftus and Palmer find which supports the substitution explanation?
Participants who heard smashed were more likely to report that they saw broken glass as suppose the the verb “hit” (no broken glass)
What did Loftus & Zanni do (1975)?
7% participants said they saw “a” broken headlight
17% participants said they saw “the” broken headlight
How does post-event discussion affect the accuracy of EWT?
Memory contamination
Memory conformity
What is memory contamination?
When discussion causes the memories to be altered with information that may not be true
What is memory conformity?
When witnesses go along with each other’s points as they want social approval but their memory remains the same
What did Gabbert et al (2003) find about post-event discussion?
Participants tested individually or in pairs
The pairs were told they watched the same video when it was different perspectives
71% of participants that were in pairs recalled information they didn’t see (as suppose to 0%)
What are the strengths of misleading information?
Good control of variables in lab studies (EV removed)
Studies can be replicated to test reliability (IV affects DV)
Important applications to real life (cognitive interview)
Shows that co-witnesses should be prevent from discussing the event - Gabbert
How was there good control of variables in the lab studies for misleading information?
Extraneous variables such as weather were removed
How can the lab studies for misleading information be replicated to test reliability?
Loftus & Palmer + Loftus & Zanni’s experiments were carried out under the exact same procedures - can conclude the iv itself affect the dv
How does misleading information have important application to real life?
Police are careful with how they word questions when interviewing witnesses to avoid substitution
How does misleading information research show that co-witnesses should be prevented from discussing the event?
Gabbert’s study shows that people change their answers when speaking about their testimony with another witness
What did Bodner et al (2009) find?
Can reduce effects of post-event discussion if participants are warned of impact
What are the weaknesses of misleading information?
Lab studies lack ecological validity
Yuille & Cutshall (1986) - counter research
Lack of population validity
How did the lab studies supporting misleading information lack ecological validity?
Watching video isn’t actually experiencing it
Staged event doesn’t cause anxiety - can affect accuracy
EWT has real consequences in real life
Demand characteristics
What did Yuille & Cutshall do?
Performed ecologically valid experiment where they interviewed 13 witnesses of a real crime
Participants asked leading questions which had no effect on recall accuracy
How do the lab studies supporting misleading information lack population validity?
Many of the experiments which Loftus did involved students which is not a representative sample so we cannot generalise the findings