Eye Witness Testimony Flashcards
What two emotions can impair memory and therefore impact eyewitness testimony?
Stress and Arousal
Explain the Yerkes-Dodson Law
As we become stressed about a situation/event, our performance in the situation declines. There is an optimum level of arousal we need to be successful but it is easy to go beyond this. Being too relaxed will not help
Reconstructive memory explains recall is influenced by…
Expectations and previously stored knowledge that can affect how you remember something
Flashbulb memories are…
The belief a memory almost takes a photo of an event that makes an impact on us
One example of post event information and how it can impact…
The experiences of the witness in the time period before trial can impact what the witness thinks they saw and can result in providing inaccurate info as other information they find out after can confabulate the info they already know. Such as a witness sees a report of the incident on the news where they say a weapon was used, witness doesn’t remember a weapon but starts to believe there was a weapon
Post event info - how do leading questions affect EWT?
As they are phrased in a way to elicit a specific response e.g. a critical word may change their memory in a question like ‘how fast was the car going when it smashed the other car?’ The verb smashed is more violent and implies speed which affects the EWT
Loftus and Palmer’s car study concluded…
A change of word can significantly affect a witnesses answer to a question. If p is unsure the verb used creates bias and influence
The findings of Loftus and Palmer’s car study were…
The verb smashed caused a bigger estimation of the speed of the car (40.5mph estimated). Contacted produced slowest speed estimation (31.8mph)
The reconstructive hypothesis says two kinds of info go into a persons memory. Explain
1st is info obtained witnessing event and 2nd is info supplied after. As time goes on they merge creating one overall memory.
What does Loftus suggest about a weapon present at an incident?
It focuses attention away from less dramatic visuals e.g face
Loftus’ 1987 weapon focus study found…
When a weapon is present, eyewitnesses are so focused on a weapon that they’re recall of surroundings isn’t as good and is less accurate as when the person had a weapon rather than a chequebook the witnesses were less accurate about description and identification - 15% correct ID versus 35% in chequebook group
