Eye witness testimony

Question 1

what is a leading q?

Answer 1

question that wrongly implies something about an event or crime such as ‘what colour was the youths jacket?’ implies the perpetrator was a youth

Question 2

how does a leading q affect accuracy of EWT?

Answer 2

as information that is implied contaminates the witness’s memory and therefore witnesses recall inaccurate information

Question 3

what was the aim of loftus and palmers research?

Answer 3

to investigate whether phrasing of a question can affect ppts memory of an event

Question 4

what was the method and sample of loftus and palmers research?

Answer 4

lab experiment

45 american 🇺🇸 students split into 5 groups of 9

Question 5

what was the procedure ?

Answer 5

• all ppts shown a video of a car crash and each group was asked a leading q w a diff verb

*****smashed hit collided bumper contacted

how fast were the cars travelling when they ** each other?

loftus and palmer measured ppts speed estimates in MPH (DV)

Question 6

what were the findings?

Answer 6

ppts guessed a higher mean speed when they had smashed (40.5) compared to contacted (31.8) mph

Question 7

what was the conclusion?

Answer 7

the phrasing of a q can influence a ppts memory of an event

Question 8

Give a strength into effects if leading q’s on accuracy EST?

Answer 8

P - practical applications

E - the principles of the theory that leading q’s can influence the accuracy of EWT has led to improvements in the criminal justice and the development of cognitive interview

E - the cognitive interview avoids using leading q’s and uses a variety of techniques to increase accuracy of EWT

eg uses open questions such as ‘recall everything about the event” to trigger as many details the event as possible and increase accuracy of EWT w out it being affected by any misleading information

L - therefore the research into effects of leading questions on the accuracy of EWT is an important part of applied psychology because it could lead to more accurate testimonies and improve the lives of ppl affected by crime

Question 9

How can we further evaluate practical applications for leading q’s

Answer 9

Moreover the research could have a positive impact of the economy if witness statements are more accurate this could lead to a quicker conviction of the correct perpetrator meaning less tax payers money is spent on multiple police interviews or re-trials and this money could be used elsewhere to benefit society such as education and healthcare

Question 10

Give a criticism of leading q’s

Answer 10

P - lacks mundane realism

E - lotus and palmers research uses the artificial task of watching a video of a car crash

E - therefore it is diff to GF of the research that leading questions affect the accuracy of EWT as Foster et al (research) has found that eyewitnesses of a real event understand the importance consequences of giving inaccurate information however lots watching a video do not have the same motivation to give accurate testimonies

L - therefore lowering the external validity of research investigating the influence of leading questions on the accuracy of EWT

Question 11

Give a second criticism of leading q’s

Answer 11

P - lacks eco val

E - controlled environment

E - can’t GF on real life environment eg robbery in a supermarket

L - lowers external validity as a factor affecting EWT

Question 12

What is meant by post event discussion?

Answer 12

Post event discussion is where Witnesses of an

event discuss their accounts with each other (1)

Question 13

How does PED this affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimony?

Answer 13

Post event discussion affects the accuracy of eyewitness testimony in two ways

Memory conformity: Witnesses go along with each other either to win social approval (NSI) or because they believe the other witness is right and they are wrong (ISI). However unlike with memory contamination, the memory remains unchanged, but the accuracy of recall has been affected.

Question 14

What is RTS for PED?

Answer 14

P - Skagrberg and Wright.

E - They showed participants two versions of a film clip of a mugging, one in which a mugger’s hair was dark brown and in the other the mugger’s hair was light brown.
The ppts discussed the clips in pairs, each having
seen different versions.

E - It was found that often they did not report what they had heard from their co-witness, but rather it was a ‘blend’ of the two suggesting the mugger had ‘medium brown hair rather than dark or light.

L - Therefore, this supports
post-event discussion affecting the accuracy of EWT BECAUSE it supports that memory contamination during post-event
discussion does occur, distorting the witness’ EWT rather than just conforming to their co-witness’ response.

Question 15

Give a weakness of PED?

Answer 15

P - However, much of the research investigating post event discussion and its effect on the accuracy of EWT may be affected by demand characteristics.

E - This is because the research is conducted in a controlled environment (lab) with
unrealistic tasks such as watching video clips of crimes.

E - Research has found that participants usually want to be helpful and
not let the researcher down, so it is possible that ppts from the research are able to pick up on clues from the task
and the experimenter and change their responses to fit the aims of the research, for example, changing their response to
match that of their co-witness after discussing the clip.

L - This would lower the internal validity of research investigating
post-event discussion as the effects of discussing a crime on the accuracy of eye-witness testimony are not being accurately measured

Question 16

What is meant by anxiety?

Answer 16

Anxiety is a strong emotional and physical state that affects EWT

Question 17

How does anxiety this affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimony?

Answer 17

Extreme anxiety has been found to negatively effect EWT as witnesses only focus on certain aspects of the event so their recall is limited

Question 18

What was the aim of Johnson and Scots experiment ?

Answer 18

To investigate the effects of anxiety on the accuracy of

eyewitness testimony

Question 19

What was the method of Johnson’s and Scott’s experiment?

Answer 19

Laboratory experiment

Question 20

What was the procedure of Johnson’s and Scott’s experiment?

Answer 20

• ppts we’re placed in one of two conditions either a High anxiety ‘weapon focus’ condition or low anxiety condition (IV)
• all ppts were told to wait outside a room before the experiment began
• HIGH ANXIETY CONDITION Weapon focus’: participants heard an argument and the sound of breaking glass from within the room, and a man walked out of the room carrying a knife covered with blood
  LOW ANXIETY CONDITION; participants heard the argument from within the room before a man walked out with grease on their hands and a pen 🖋
• ppts then had to identify the person who left the room from 50 photographs

Question 21

What is RTS for anxiety?

Answer 21

P - Research to support that anxiety has a negative effect on the accuracy of eye-Witness testimony was conducted by Valentine and Mesout.

E - The researchers used an objective measure (heart rate) to divide
participants into high and low anxiety groups.

E - Participants took part in the London Dungeon Labrinth (a
High anxiety event) and were then asked to immediately recall physical details of the actor from the event.

L - it was found that high anxiety lowered the accuracy of EWT significantly which theretore
suBsests that high levels of anxiety does have a negative effect on immediate eye- witness recall of a stressful event.

Question 22

What is RTS to contradict Johnson’s Scott’s research into effects of anxiety?

Answer 22

P - Christianson and Hubinette

E - They interviewed 58 real life witnesses of a bank robbery
where some had been directly threatened (bank teller- high anxtety) and others were bystanders (customers w low anxiety) it was found that recall was more than 75% those who had been directly threatened had even more accurate accounts.

E - This contradicts current research that anxiety reduces the accuracy of EWT BECAUSE compared to real life cases of those who
had high anxiety, they were able to focus on key aspects of the event and were successful in the perpetrator being caught

Question 23

How can we further evaluate anxiety?

Answer 23

P - To evaluate anxiety as a factor affecting the accuracy of EWT the Yerkes-Dodson Law can
be used.

E - This proposes that anxiety and the accuracy of EWT is not a simple relationship. Different levels of anxiety affect the accuracy of EWT too little or too much anxiety would result in poor EWT recall, however, if you reach an optimum level of anxiety, somewhere in the middle of these two points, the accuracy of EWT is high.

E - This explains the differences in results between Johnson and Scott and
Christianson and Hubinette’s research. It may be suggested that the ppts in Christianson and Hubinette’s were at an optimum level of anxiety, which resulted in more accurate EWL. Whereas the participants in Johnson and Scott’s study may have not been as anxious due to it being an experiment, resulting in less accurate EWT.

L - Therefore, this resolves the contradiction and validates that anxiety does affect EWT.

Question 24

What is memory contamination?

Answer 24

Memory contamination - When co-witnesses to a crime discuss it with each other their EWT may become altered or distorted. This is because they combine (mis)information from other witnesses with their own memories suggesting that their memories of the event have changed because of post event discussion.