Contemporary study - Valentine T and Mesout J (2009) Flashcards
What was the aim of the Valentine and Mesout contemporary study?
To investigate the effect of stress on the accuracy of EWT whilst visiting the London Dungeons
What was the methodology (study type, sample, sampling method) of the Valentine and Mesout contemporary study? (3 points)
Type of study: Field experiment / Questionnaire
Sample: 56 pps
Males: 27
Females: 29
Sampling Method: Opportunity
Participants agreed to answer a questionnaire after the Dungeon experience for a reduced fee
What were the 3 IVs and the DV of the Valentine and Mesout contemporary study? (4 points)
IV1: Gender
IV2: Trait anxiety score
E.g. ‘I feel inadequate’
IV3: State anxiety score in Dungeon
E.g. ‘I was tense’
DV: Memory of the Dungeon
What was the procedure of the Valentine and Mesout contemporary study? (5 points)
- When participants were on the Dungeon tour, a ‘scary person’, dressed in a dark robe and painted pale with scars, jumped out at them and blocked their path
- After the tour, participants did 20-question (Likert scale of 1 to 4) questionnaires to calculate their trait and state anxiety scores
- Median score was taken to divide particpants into a high-state anxiety and a low-state anxiety group
- The participants were asked to identify the ‘scary person’ from a 9-person photograph line-up without guessing - they also had to report confidence in their decision (0-100)
- Other measurements were in a questionnaire which invited free recall and subsequently cued-recall e.g. height, weight, and ethnicity
What were the results and conclusion of the Valentine and Mesout contemporary study? (4 points)
Males made more correct identifications than females
Higher state anxiety led to a statistically significant decrease in accuracy - negative correlation with the number of correct descriptors in the questionnaire
Percentage of participants who correctly identified the scary person:
Scored below median state anxiety: 75%
Scored above median state anxiety: 17%
Conclusion: Being highly anxious reduces EWT accuracy
How generalisable is the Valentine and Mesout contemporary study? (3 points)
Participants had an even spread of genders (27M, 29F) - no gender bias within the study
However, participants had chosen to go to the Dungeon knowing it would be scary - may have had different reactions than those who don’t choose to visit scary environments
Not entirely representative of the human population
How is the Valentine and Mesout contemporary study reliable? (2 points)
Inter-rater reliability:
A panel of independent judges rated the descriptors given in the free-recall and cue-recall as either accurate or inaccurate
Somewhat standardised procedure:
+ Same scary person jumped at same position
+ Same questionnaire and line-up used after the Dungeon experience
How is the Valentine and Mesout contemporary study not reliable? (3 points)
Whether the methodology was reliable is up for debate
Field experiment - many situational variables uncontrolled, such as the other Dungeon tour members’:
+ Body positioning
+ Reactions
The method could produce inconsistencies
How applicable to real life is the Valentine and Mesout contemporary study? (4 points)
The study has important applications for real-life criminal trials in which the witnesses experience stress
The study discovered that the more state anxiety a person experiences during an event, the less likely they are to identify key features such as the identity of a scary person
It would be advantageous for police to adopt a Cognitive Interview for interviews for people who have experienced stress at a crime
The CI technique achieves 34% more accurate recall as opposed to the standard interview (Kohnken et al, 1999)
How internally valid is the Valentine and Mesout contemporary study? (3 points)
High internal validity due to state anxiety being operationalised and the score being validated
State anxiety scores were correlated with the change in HR (HR when walking ‘pre-test’ vs HR when in the dungeon)
Positive correlation indicated a valid measure of state anxiety - assures that the participants were not giving socially desirable answers
How ecologically valid is the Valentine and Mesout contemporary study? (3 points)
Although being scared in the London Dungeons is not an everyday experience, the study was a field experiment in a natural setting
Participants didn’t know they were going to be asked to identify the scary person afterwards, just like an eyewitness would be unsuspecting of the task of identifying a person
The study’s high mundane realism makes demand characteristics less likely - more applicable to real life than EWT research done in a lab
How ethical was the Valentine and Mesout contemporary study? (4 points)
Participants consented to stress by choosing to be involved in a scary experience by initially visiting the Dungeon
Participants were protected from harm - they left the Dungeons under no more stress than they intended to leave it in
Slight degree of deception about the true aim of dungeon recall accuracy - wasn’t shared before they answered the questionnaire
However, the lack of demand characteristics, eliciting more natural and valid behaviour (benefits), outweighs the slight break of ethical conduct (costs)
