Effect Of Misleading Info On EWT Flashcards
Research demonstrated the Impact of leading questions on the accuracy of EWT
E - Loftus + Palmer asked 150 American students to estimate the speed of a car in a crash video. Participants asks “how fast was the car going when it smashed into the other car?” gave higher speed estimates than those asked when the cars “made contact”
E - Finding shows how the phrasing of a question (in this case one word) can lead participants to give differing testimony of what they witnessed, indicating that the the accuracy of EWT can be affected by leading questions, resulting in the misinformation effect. Furthermore when later asked if the saw broken glass (not present in video) participants given leading questions with violent verbs (e.g smashed were more likely to say yes > those given gentler verbs. Suggesting the misinformation effect altered their memory causing them to confabulate details not in the original leading question. It supports the idea that misleading information blends with the original memory, challenging the view that the effect is solely due to retroactive interference affecting retrieval without altering the original memory. However, one issue with this study is its weak population validity. It uses a sample of 150 American students, which, despite its size, has a biased age profile. Since the misinformation effect varies with age, the findings on leading questions may not generalize to other age groups, such as young children or the elderly.
Limitation of research into the effects of misleading information on EWT = it’s weak ecological validity
E - researcher investigating EWT tend to rely on showing staged events to participants. E.g the eyewitness in the Loftus and Palmer experiment watched a video clip of a traffic accident in a laboratory setting.
E - Results of these studies do not reflect real life instances of EWT as in real life the experience of witnessing an incident is likely to be surprising & filled with intense emotions. It is doubtful this experience can be recreated by watching video footage of an incident in the artificial setting of a laboratory. This issue of ecological validity has led to some US states banning the testimony of expert witnesses (like Elizabeth Loftus, who designed the leading question experiment) on the grounds that the findings of laboratory experiments cannot tell us about the impact of misleading information on the accuracy of real-world EWT.
L - Therefore there are issues with generalising the findings from lab-based experiments to real world instances of eyewitness testimony, meaning we cannot be confident about this research reveals about the effect of misleading information on the accuracy of EWT.
Research demonstrating the -tive impact of post-event discussions on the accuracy of EWT
E - Gabbert (2003) showed participants videos of a robbery filmed from different angles, where each participant saw unique details. After conferring, 71% mistakenly recalled details they couldn’t have seen, compared to 0% in the control group who did not confer.
E - Findings demonstrates that post-event discussions can undermine the accuracy of EWT through the misinformation effect, as participants who engaged in the post-event discussion gave inaccurate testimony. According to Gabbert, this powerful misinformation effect is the result of memory conformity, where participants altered their testimony to conform to that of others. However, this explanation leaves whether their memory of the original event was altered or whether their memory was unchanged, but their testimony was affected. Furthermore, it’s also not possible to say whether their memory conformity resulted from NSI (meaning their testimony may have reflected a desire to fit in with the other participants) or ISI (meaning they conformed as they believed the other witnesses were correct in what they saw).
One limitation of Loftus and Palmer’s research into the effects of leading questions on EWT is that their study lacks population validity
E - Their experiment consisted of 150 American students
E - Although this sample size is large, their participants may still not have been representative of typical eyewitnesses. It is reasonable to argue that the participants in their experiment, being students and therefore probably young, were less experienced drivers, who may be less accurate at estimating speeds than older, more experienced drivers. Consequently, it may be difficult to generalise the results of this study to the wider population.
L - Therefore, this research may not be a valid account of how leading questions can affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimony in the target population.
Strength of research into the effects of misleading information on EWT = it’s real life application & implications
E – According to the Innocence Project “Eyewitness misidentification is the single greatest cause of wrongful convictions nationwide, playing a role in more than 75% of convictions overturned through DNA testing.
E – This demonstrates the important implications of research into factors affecting EWT, as it reveals how dangerous it is for a justice system to rely so heavily on EWT, when it’s clear its accuracy can be so easily undermined by misleading information. Moreover, this research has important applications, as it can help improve the way the legal system works and reduce the likelihood of wrongful convictions occurring. For example, jurors could be educated so that they understand how easily eyewitness testimony can be affected by misleading information, making it less likely that they would rely too much on potentially inaccurate testimony when reaching their judgments. Furthermore, investigators and lawyers could be educated on how to interview eyewitnesses, so that they avoid introducing misleading information that could bias their testimony. Moreover, such research has economic implications, as a miscarriage of justice, in which an innocent person is wrongly convicted, has huge financial costs. including the costs associated with wrongful arrest, trial and imprisonment, as well as the loss of income for the falsely accused. If research into factors affecting eyewitness testimony can help avoid miscarriages of justice, it can help avoid these costs.
L– Therefore, research into the effects of misleading information on eyewitness testimony has the potential to benefit society by improving the way the justice system works.
