EWT: Misleading information Flashcards
What is eyewitness testimony?
The ability of people to remember the details of events, such as accidents and crimes, which they themselves have observed. Accuracy of EWT can be affected by factors such as misleading information and anxiety.
What is misleading information?
Incorrect information given to an eyewitness usually after the event. It can take many forms, such as leading questions and post-event discussion between co-witnesses and/or other people.
Who did research on leading questions?
Loftus and Palmer (1974)
What was the procedure of Loftus and Palmer’s study?
Arranged for participants to watch clips of car accidents and then asked them questions about the accident. In the leading question, participants were asked to describe how fast the car was travelling: ‘about how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?’. There were 5 groups of participants and each was given a different verb: hit, contacted, bumped, collided, smashed.
What did Loftus and Palmer find in their study?
The more intense the verb used, the faster the mean estimated speed of the cars.
What does Loftus and Palmer’s study show?
The leading question biased the eyewitness’ recall of te event.
Why do leading questions affect EWT?
The response-bias explanation suggests that the wording has no effect on memories but instead influences how they choose to answer.
What explanation does Loftus and Palmer’s second experiment support?
Substitution explanation - the wording of a leading question changes the participant’s memory of the film clip. In this study, participants who heard ‘smashed’ were more likely to report seeing smashed glass, although there was none, than those who heard ‘hit’.
What is a leading question?
A question which because of the way its worded suggests a certain answer
What is post-event discussion?
PED occurs when there is more than one witness to an event. Witnesses may discuss what they have seen with co-witnesses or with other people. This may influence the accuracy of each witnesses recall of the event.
Who did research on post event discussion?
Gabbert et al. 2003
What was Gabbert’s procedure?
Studied participants in pairs. Each participant watched a video of the same crime, but filmed from a different point of view. This means that each participant could see elements in the event that the other could not. Both participants discussed what they had seen before individually completing a test of recall.
What did Gabbert find?
71% of the participants mistakenly recalled aspects of the event that they did not see in the video but had picked up in the discussion. The corresponding figure in a control group, where there was no discussion, was 0%. This was evidence of memory conformity.
What are the explanations of post event discussion affecting EWT?
Memory contamination and memory conformity.
What is memory contamination?
When co-witnesses to a crime discuss it with each other, their eyewitness testimonies may become altered or distorted. This is because they combine (mis)information from other witnesses with their own memories.
