Eye witness testimony

Question 1

What is eye witness testimony?

Answer 1

statement from individuals who have witnessed an event

Question 2

What makes up the memory of an event?

Answer 2

the info gained at the time of the event + the info gained after

Question 3

What did Loftus and Palmer find?

Answer 3

45 students
5 groups
7 short films and asked ‘how fast were the cars going when they _______ each other?’
- smashed
- collided
- bumped
- hit
- contacted

Results :
smashed for highest number
contacted got lowest number

Question 4

What did Loftus and Palmer find in their following experiment?

Answer 4

same video
same question
1 week later returned and asked did you see any broken glass
smashed or collided were more likely to say yes

Question 5

What is post event discussion?

Answer 5

when a witness obtains more information after the event due to discussion or repeat interviewing

Question 6

What is repeat interviewing?

Answer 6

comments from the interviewers will become incorporated into their recollection of events

Question 7

What is the conformity effect?

Answer 7

reaching an agreement about what actually happened through discussion

Question 8

What did Johnson and Scott find in their experiment ?

Answer 8

EWT Anxiety
pen covered in grease
knife covered in blood
asked to identify man
pen condition= 49% accuracy
knife condition= 33% accuracy

Question 9

What did Christianson and Hubinette find?

Answer 9

anxiety = positive effect
58 real witnesses to bank robbery
threatened and bystanders
people subjected to more anxiety showed greater recall

Question 10

What is the cognitive interview?

Answer 10

Geisalman and Fisher
To help witnesses and victims produce more accurate retrieval of info after a crime

Question 11

What are the 4 stages on a cognitive interview?

Answer 11

1) mental reinstatement of original context - recreate physical and psychological environment

2) report everything

3) change order - recall in reverse to prevent the schema from influencing

4) change perspective - e.g how it would of appeared to other witnesses

Question 12

What is included in an enhanced cognitive interview?

Answer 12

listening actively
avoidance of interruption
build rapport
encouraging concentration

Question 13

What is a weakness of the cognitive interview?

Answer 13

• not all 4 stages are useful
mental reinstatement and report everything gave the best recall

• hard to measure effectiveness
difficult to control all variables