EWT: Misleading Info Flashcards
Describe Loftus and palmers research
- Gave students clip to watch
- Changed critical verb
- Contacted and smashed
What were the 2 critical verbs average estimated speed?
Contacted: 31.8mph
Smashed: 40.5
What did the smashed, hit study show?
Leading question biased recall of event
What was the critical question
About how fast where h aces going when they … each other
How can post event discussion contaminate EWT
Combine misinformation with their own memories
Describe study into post-event discussion
Gabbert (2003)
- Participants in pairs
- Watched same crime but different angled clips so some contained details the other didn’t
- Witnesses discussed what they saw before individuals being tested
- 71% reported something they had no actually seen
- Control with no discussion was 0%
- Witnesses went along due to ISI, called memory conformity
Limitation of Contacted, Smashed study
Might not tell us how leading question affect real life crime
What are the two explanations as to why leading question affect EWT
Responder-bias
Substitution explanation
Describe responder bias explanation
Suggests wording has no real effect on memory, just influences how they decide to answer
Describe substitution explanation
Wording acc changes memory. Likely as those who had smashed reported seeing glass when they’re wasn’t any
How does misleading info have real life application
Inaccurate EWT can have serious implications when in court. Police can bias memory with interviews. Led to cog interview
Limitation of loftus and plamers study
- Film of car crash, very different from seeing it in real life
- Without anxiety (shown to affect memory)
- Limitation as tells us little about real life situations
Individual differences in EWT
Rhodes (2006)
- Found people aged 18-45 more accurate than 55-78
- All groups more accurate at identifying people of own age (own age bias)
Consequences of EWT
What’s reported in real life EWT has consequences so probs more accurate, as same is not true for research’s studies
How can anxiety have a negative affect on recall
- Creates a physiological arousal which prevents us paying attention to cues
- So recall is worse