EWT Introduction

Question 1

What is eye witness testimony EWT

Answer 1

An area of memory research that investigates the accuracy of memory following an accident, crime or significant event and the type of errors that are commonly made in such situations

Question 2

What are the 4 problems with EWT

Answer 2

Encoding
Interference
Retrieval failure
Reconstructive memory

Question 3

Encoding in EWT

Answer 3

encoding may be partial and distorted as a crime happens quickly and our emotions may impact this

Question 4

Interference in EWT

Answer 4

memories may be lost or modified during retention (most forgetting takes place in the first few minutes) and other activities between encoding and retrieval may interfere with the memory itself

Question 5

Retrieval failure EWT

Answer 5

What happens during the reconstruction of memory may significantly affects its accuracy e.g.presence of appropriate retrieval cues or the nature of questioning

Question 6

Reconstruction memory EWT

Answer 6

memory is not a direct record of what was witnessed
What is encoded and how it’s retrieved depends on:
Information already stored in memory
How this info is understand ,structured and organised

Question 7

What is schemas

Answer 7

A filing cabinet which files previous memories which help us to interpret new memories
Memories are reconstructed using your schemas to fill in gaps in your memory

Question 8

Study on reconstruction memory and EWT

Answer 8

Allport and postman (1947)
Pps were asked to recall details of an event
A white man was holding a razor blade to a black man on a subway in New York
However the pps recalled it as the black man holding the razor blade and threatening the white man