Eye witness testimonies Flashcards
What did Bartlett argue?
Bartlett argued that eye witness testimonies are not accurate ‘snapshots’ of events, but are instead reconstructions of events.
What is a Schema? (Bartlett)
Where our memories change to fit with the individuals pre-existing bias.
Reconstructive Memory
Where memory is not an accurate recording of events.
What are Leading Questions?
Questions that imply a particular answer and can influence how a memory is recalled. This could be due to emotional pressure to give a particular response. (response bias)
Loftus and Palmer study
Participants (45) - were shown clips of traffic accidents. After this they were asked critical leading questions with the verb changing (how fast were the cars when they …… into each other). the most extreme verbs got the highest estimation of MPH - 31.8% (contacted) and 40.8% (smashed)
What does Loftus and Palmer study suggest?
Their study suggests misleading information in the form of leading questions can influence the recall of eye witness testimony
Loftus and Palmer follow up study
Participants (150) - were asked to watch a video of cars crashing WITHOUT broken glass. After this they were split into groups asking (same question as prior study) but with the verb hit or smashed. WEEK LATER they were asked to complete a questionnaire (did you see any broken glass?)
Findings of Loftus and Palmer follow up study
Was found that Ps were twice as likely to respond yes when asked with the verb smashed compared to hit.
What do the findings of Loftus and Palmers follow up study suggest?
This suggests that the effects of misleading information in the form of leading questions can be long lasting and can change memory via substitution
Gabbert et al study
Video of crimes from different perspectives were shown to Ps. With small differences in each film.
Findings of Gabbert et al stduy
Was found that 71% of pairs allowed to discuss what they had seen included aspects of the film they had not seen in their version of the video. Compared to 0% who were not allowed to discuss what they had seen.
Bonders Findings
It was found that these participants shared significantly less information gained from the other witnesses. This suggests that if warned about the dangers of Post-event discussion its effects can be reduced
What do findings from Gabbert et al suggest?
Suggest that witnesses will change their account of crimes to match other witnesses testimonies. This may be an attempt to seek social approval, resulting in memory conformity.
What is a factor that effects EWT?
Anxiety - A mental state of arousal that includes feelings of extreme concern and tension. EWT is usually used after violent crimes causing HIGH anxiety. Research in EWT often has no emotional impact on the participant, resulting in low validity.
How does anxiety effect EWT?
Anxiety is found to decrease recall.
What is the Weapon/Focus effect?
Theory that the presence of a weapon effects the witnesses memory as they are so focused on the weapon instead of the criminal.
How does anxiety Positively effect EWT?
A state of arousal improves alertness, and awareness of the situation and surroundings. Strong emotions could also be felt improving memory encoding
Example of Anxiety improving recall
Yerks-Dodson Law of arousal:
There’s a point where anxiety becomes too high and can result in lower level accuracy
Johnson and Scott Study + Findings (supporting weapon effect)
Participants were placed outside a lab, listening to conversations.
1 - normal conversation
2 - hostile conversation
It was found that more participants identified a man with a pen (49%) than a knife (33%). This suggests the weapon focus effect is a valid explanation.
Peters Study and Findings (Supporting weapon effect)
Participants at a health care centre were given real injections by a nurse, with a researcher also present. It was found that the patients were better able to recognise the researcher than the nurse. This suggests Anxiety is caused by the injection.
Yuille and Cutshall Study and Findings (Criticism of weapon effect)
13 Witnesses were interviewed to a deadly shooting four months after the event. It was found that witnesses resisted misleading information and those closer to the shooter produced the most accurate EWT. This suggests misleading information and anxiety may not be a significant problem for real world EW.
What techniques are used in Cognitive interviews?
Reinstate Context
Report Everything
Change Perspective
Change the Order
Reinstate Context
Mentally recreate the physical and psychological environment of the original incident. The aim is to make memories accessible through contextual and emotional cues.
Report everything
The interviewer encourages the reporting of every single detail of the event without editing anything. Witnesses should not leave anything out, even if they think it is insignificant
Change the perspective
Witnesses are asked to recall the event from multiple perspectives, for example by imaging how it may have appeared to other witnesses
Change the Order
The interviewer may attempt to run through events in a different order, for example in reverse.
What concept in psychology does Reinstate context support?
Retrieval Failure:
Forgetting occurs due to the absence of necessary cues.
The Cognitive interview aims to provide cues to aid recall
What concept do Change in the order and Change in perspective support?
The Change in perspective and change in order are designed to stop people from reporting their expectations but rather make them think about what actually happened
Fisher et al - Additional elements of the cognitive interview
- Focus was more on the social dynamics of the interview:
1. Making and reducing eye contact
2. Reducing Anxiety
3. Minimising distractions
4. Witness to breathe slowly
5. Open ended questions
Research Support for the Cognitive Interview (evaluation)
Fisher et al -
Examined the effectiveness of the cognitive interview in real police interviews.
Strength - Standard compared to Cognitive - 1 Group was trained - 46% more info & 90% accurate
Research support Cognitive Interview Kohnken
Evidence that the CI actually works.
Kohnken compared data from 55 studies comparing CI to standard police interviews.
Strength - Kohnken et al - Meta analysis - 55 studies CI vs SI (standard interviews) - 41% more accurate information
Limitation - Cognitive Interview (Kohnken)
Kohnken found in his research that there was an increase in the amount of inaccurate information recalled.
Limitation - Quantity not Quality - Kohnken - Increase of inaccurate information - Tread carefully
Limitation - CI
The amount of time and training needed to implement it.
Limitation - Time not Training - Easy strategies for less info - No time for training - Not widespread
