Criminal- Studies

Question 1

What is the name and date of the criminal classic study?

Answer 1

Loftus and Palmer (1974)

Question 2

What is the aim of the criminal classic study?

Answer 2

To investigate whether leading questions would influence the estimations of the speed of a vehicle among eyewitnesses

Question 3

Who were the participants in the criminal classic study? What participant design was used?

Answer 3

46 American Psychology students, independent measures.

Question 4

Describe the procedure (part 1) of the criminal classic study.

Answer 4

Each participant shown 7 short clips of a traffic accident and after each clip they were asked to give an account of the accident. The film clips were between 5-30 seconds long and were shown in a different order for each group. Asked a critical question “about how fast were the cars going when they (contacted, bumped, hit, collided, smashed) each other?”

Question 5

Describe the procedure (part 2) of the criminal classic study

Answer 5

150 students watched a film showing a multiple car accident which lasted for less than 1 minute. Answered a questionnaire then a week later returned and were asked “did you see any broken glass?”

Question 6

What were the results (part 1) of the criminal classic study?

Answer 6

Smashed (40.5mph), collided (39.3mph), bumped (38.1mph), hit (34.0mph) and contacted (31.8mph)

Question 7

What were the results (part 2) of the criminal classic study?

Answer 7

Number of people who saw glass, smashed-16, hit-7 and control-6

Question 8

What is the conclusion (part 1) of the criminal classic study?

Answer 8

Participants were uncertain of the speed and so used the verb to help them predict. Wording of the question causes a change in memory

Question 9

What is the conclusion (part 2) of the criminal classic study?

Answer 9

Has an effect on reconstructive memory, leading questions influence eye witness testimony.

Question 10

Evaluate the criminal classic study in terms of generalisability.

Answer 10

Low in generalisability. The participants were all a similar age, students of psychology and all from the same university.

Question 11

Evaluate the criminal classic study in terms of reliability.

Answer 11

High in reliability. It was a laboratory experiment so there was high control over extraneous variables. This means it can be repeated under the same conditions by another researcher.

Standard procedure as they all saw the same video and all were asked the same set of questions.

Question 12

Evaluate the criminal classic study in terms of applications.

Answer 12

Can help the police with their interviews. They can obtain a more accurate eye witness testimony as the police are now trained to use the cognitive interview technique.

Question 13

Evaluate the criminal classic study in terms of validity.

Answer 13

High internal validity as it was a lab experiment with a standardised procedure and therefore strict control over extraneous variables which allows us to establish a clear cause and effect relationship.

Low task validity as watching a video is very different to real life situations. There are no emotions and you can mentally prepare yourself. This is therefore not reflective of real life.

Also a risk of demand chracteristics.

Question 14

Evaluate the criminal classic study in terms of ethics.

Answer 14

Consent was gained from volunteers who wanted to be part of the study. However, it wasn’t informed because they were actually all decieved about the use of leading questions.

Question 15

What is the name and date of the criminal contemporary study?

Answer 15

Valentine and Mesout (2009)

Question 16

What is the aim of the criminal contemporary study?

Answer 16

To test the prediction derived from the catastrophe model. The experiment was designed to test eye witness memory in a situation that posed some personal threat but occurs during the normal course of everyday life without the participants being aware that eye witness memory would be used.

Question 17

Who were the participants in the criminal contemporary study? What participant design was used?

Answer 17

56 volunteers with a mean age of 31, 29 females and 27 males. The participants were offered a reduction in the administration price to complete some questionaires after their visit.

Question 18

What was the apparatus of the criminal contemporary study?

Answer 18

The study was based at the Horrow Labyrinth which is the first exhibit of the London Dungeon. It is a maze of floor to ceiling mirrored walls. Its aim is to disorientate. There is a scary person dressed in dark robes wearing theatrical make up.

A heart rate monitor was worn.

Two measures were used. TAI was 20 statements relating to how one usually feels. Each statement was rated on a four point scale and assigned a score between 1 and 4. SAI was 20 statements were based on how they felt during the study.

After the study, they had to pick one of the nine photos in the line up of who the scary person was.

Question 19

What was the procedure of the criminal contemporary study?

Answer 19

Whilst quing up to enter the dungeon, they agreed to fill out a questionnaire but did not give informed consent. The actor was then given guidence on who the participants were so that they would guarentee to see him.

After completing the tour, a full debrief was given. After 45 minutes the SAI was given followed by the TAI. They were then given a questionnaire with free recall, then cue recall (was he female/male, what height, what age, what hair colour) and then finally a 9 person photo line up where they were told he may or may not be there.

Question 20

Describe the results of the criminal contemporary study

Answer 20

• The mean state anxiety score was 49.0. State anxiety score was higher in females, a score of 52.8 for females and 45.3 for males.
• Trait anxiety mean score was 36.8. No significant gender differences.
• Participants who reported lower state anxiety recalled more correct discriptors of the appearance of the actor
• 75% of the eye witnesses who scored below the median correctly identified the actor from the photo line-up.

Question 21

What is the conclusion of the criminal contemporary study?

Answer 21

Females show higher levels of anxiety in stressful situations. Being highly anxious decreases the accuracy of eye witnesses in identifying perpetrators. It suggests that when considering the accuracy of eyewitnesses, experts should take in to account the emotional state of the witness.

Question 22

Evaluate the criminal contemporary study in terms of generalisability.

Answer 22

Generalisability may be low. Participants may have a preference for scary events/activities as they were recruited by volunteer sample. This limits the representativeness of findings as their reactions to the scary stimuli may not be the same as those who do not choose to visit such environments.

Question 23

Evaluate the criminal contemporary study in terms of reliability.

Answer 23

Low reliability as the study took place in a very specific location which is a natural setting. There were extraneous variables that were hard to control. Therefore it would be nearly impossible to recreate in any other setting exactly.

High reliabiity. Although there may be some issues, the researchers had strong controls in place such as taking the same route through the maze. This means the experience was the same for everyone.

Question 24

Evaluate the criminal contemporary study in terms of applications

Answer 24

Can help the police with EWT. When distressed/traumatised, the eye witnesses are less likely to give accurate testimonies.

Question 25

Evaluate the criminal contemporary study in terms of validity.

Answer 25

High in ecological validity as the study took place in a London attraction that wasn’t altered in any way. This means that the experience was what they were anticipating by wanting to go. However, it still isn’t an everyday type of task with an ordinary eye witness.

High in validity as the researchers undertook an additional process of validating the questionnaires to make sure they were a good measure of anxiety. This provides assurance that the measures of anxiety were not measuring information about other emotions when completing the wuestionnaires

Question 26

Evaluate the criminal contemporary study in terms of ethics.

Answer 26

Consent was gained from the participants to answer a questionnaire at the end. This wasn’t informed. They were also given a full debrief and minmal ditress as they had already chosen to go to the dungeons.