Eye Witness Testimony Flashcards
What are the factors effecting reliability of EWT?
Anxiety
Misleading information
Improving the EWT using the cognitive interview
What study looked into the anxiety in the EWT?
Loftus 1979
What was loftus’ procedure?
Participants heard a discussion/disagreement in a nearby room
Condition A - saw someone leave with a pen
Condition B -saw someone leave with a small knife
What were the results of loftus’ study?
Condition A) 49% of the participants were accurate when they were asked to identify the man
Condition B) 33% of participants were accurate
Conclusion - when anxious witnesses tend to focus in the weapon at the expense of other details
What were the strengths and weaknesses of loftus’ study?
- High ecological validity as participants weren’t aware the study was staged
- ethical issues as the participant may get distressed at the sight of a man with a knife
What study investigate misleading information (normally comes in the form of leading questions)?
Loftus and Palmer 1974
Aim- to investigate the impact of leading questions
What was loftus and palmers method?
- Participants were shown a vid of two care colliding and were alder to estimate how fast the cars were going but the wording of the questions was altered
- one group was asked how fast the cars were going when they ‘smashed into each other’ and the others were asked how fast they were going when they ‘hit’ each other
- when re interviews one week later they were asked if they saw any broken glass when there in fact wasn’t any
Results of loftus and palmers study?
Participants have faster estimations if they heard the world ‘smashed’
-this he has heard the word smashed were also more likely to say they had seen broken glass
Loftus and Palmer concluded that what we are asked after an incident can become mixed with our memory and can alter it
What are the strengths and weaknesses of loftus and plalmers study?
Independent groups
High control
The week between the interview isn’t controlled
They only watched a video so don’t get the full impact of a real situation
Low ecological validity as students were used
What study investigated post even discussion?
Gabbert et al 2003
Aimed to investigate the effect of post event discussion on the accuracy of EWT
What was Gabbets method?
Participants either saw a video of a girl stealing a wallet or a video where they didn’t see her stealing the wallet
Participants were then parked up and asked to discuss what they had seen
Results of Gabbets study?
71% claimed to have seen things they hadn’t ( first group) and 60% believed the girl was guilty ( who didn’t even see the crime)
-post event discussion affects the reliability of EWT
what is used to improve EWT?
The cognitive interview
how do we remember whats included in EWT?
CROP NO CRAP
What does Crop stand for?
- CONTEXT,imagine you were back in the room,what were you wearing etc…
- REPORT..every detail
- recall the event in ORDER
- report from different PERSPECTIVES
