Eye Witness Testimony Flashcards
What is a schema?
Framework of our ready made expectations that help us understand our world (stereotypes)
What is a schema made up of?
- Concepts/events/knowledge which already exists in our mind
- Experience and media use creates these
Why are schemas needed?
Help us interpret the world
Store any new knowledge
Fill in any gaps in new info
Why are schemas a problem?
- Can distort understanding/recall
- When info doesn’t readily fit into our existing schema we adapt it so that it does
Leading questions
Make it likely that a pp’s schema will influence them to give a certain answer
Misleading information
- Incorrect info given to eye witness that may alter a memory after the event
- Info that suggests a desired response
Post-event discussion
- Misleading conversations after an incident that may alter an eye witness’s memory
- Info added to a memory after
What was Loftus and Palmer’s 1974 bumped/smashed experiment?
- Pps shown short films involving car crashes
- Given a questionnaire to fill in, phrasing of the question was different (hit/bumped/smashed/collided/contacted)
- Asked to guess the speed the cars were travelling at
- More extreme verb = higher speed
What was Loftus and Palmer’s 1975 misleading information experiment?
- Pps watched video of car accident and asked similar speed question
- Week later pps asked if they saw the broken glass (no actual broken glass)
- Misleading info can implant a lie in people’s memories
What was Yuille and Cutshall’s 1986 real life shooting experiment?
- Witnesses observed the shooting in which one person was killed, agreed to a research interview to investigate effects of post-event discussion
- Witnesses were highly accurate, little change in the amount/accuracy of recall
- Challenges findings of Loftus
Anxiety as a factor affecting accuracy of eye witness testimony
Crimes cause high levels of anxiety, which can cause memories to distort
What is the Yerkes-Dodson Inverted U Hypothesis?
- Arousal has a negative effect on accuracy of EWT when at very low/high levels
- Moderate level is beneficial as adrenaline can sharpen senses/create clearer memories
Johnson and Scott’s Weapon Effect Experiment
- 1976
- Pps overheard exchange between 2 people
- Low anxiety condition: man with greasy pen comes out
- High anxiety condition: man comes out with bloody knife
- Pps asked to identify man from set of photos
- 49% accuracy LAC, 33% HAC
Issue/debate of anxiety
- Reductionist
- Ignores factors such as age/individual differences in mental health
- Known that very young/old people struggle to recall detail, anxiety affects people in different ways etc
- Limits the usefulness of the theory
Issue/debate for leading questions
- Experimental reductionism
- Tries to explain a complex behaviour by relying on isolated variables
- Undermines complexity of memory
