Eye Witness Testimony: MEMORY Flashcards

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1
Q

What does the focus on eye witness testimony observe?

A

The ability of people to accurately remember the details of events which they have observed. e.g: crimes, accidents

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2
Q

WHat two factors effect EWT?

A
  • Misleading information

- Anxiety

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3
Q

What is misleading information?

2 types are??

A

Incorrect information given to an eyewitness

1) Leading questions
2) Post - event discussion

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4
Q

What are Leading questions

A

A question which because of the way it is phrased, suggests a certain answer.
e.g: was the knife in the left hand ? Leads people thinking the knife was in that hand

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5
Q

Who studies Leading questions EWT

what did they do?

Findings

Conclusion

A

Loftus + Palmer (1974)

Showed clip of car crash.
gave p.p questionnaire
Changed the verb in the question how fast were the cars going when they …… Each other?
5 different verbs: Hit, Contacted, Bumped, Collided, smashed

Fasted speed of car stated by group given ‘smashed’ verb
Slowest speed of car stated by group with ‘Contacted’ verb

Leading questions can distort memories and info

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6
Q

What is post event discussion

A

When there is more than one witness at the event. Witnesses may discuss what they have seen with Co witnesses, influencing the accuracy of each witnesses recall on each other

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7
Q

Who studied the effects of post event discussion on recall

A

Gabber et Al

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8
Q

Gabbet et Al procedure

A
  • 2 experimental groups watched the same clip from different perspectives
  • both pp. Discussed West they had seen before completing a test on recall
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9
Q

Findings of Gabbert et al

A

71% of pp. Mistakenly recalled aspects of the event they had not seen in the video but had picked up on discussion

Control group had 0% inaccurate recall

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10
Q

What is anxiety

A

A state of emotional and physical arousal

Emotions: worrying thoughts and feelings of tention.

Physical: increased heart rate, sweatiness

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11
Q

What is the weapon focus effect

A

A weapon causing anxious effects of physiological arousal in the body which prevents us paying attention to important cues e.g face

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12
Q

What did Johnson and Scott (1976) study

A

Weapon focus effect

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13
Q

What we’re the two conditions of Johnson and Scott’s research

A

Low anxiety condition = greasy pen

High anxiety condition =bloody knife

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14
Q

Which condition had the higher percentage of accurate recall when shown 50 different pictures of people

A

Low anxiety (49%) +.

Comparer to high axiety = 33%

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15
Q

Which condition had the higher percentage of accurate recall when shown 50 different pictures of people

A

Low anxiety (49%) +.

Comparer to high axiety = 33%

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16
Q

What is the Yerkes - Dodson law?

A
  • Low levels of arousal/anxiety =low recall
  • there is an optimum ammount of anxiety = optimum recall
  • can be too much anxiety, recall declines
17
Q

What did Yuille and Cutshall (1986) study

A

Effects of anxiety on accuracy of recall

18
Q

Findings of Yuille and Cutshall study

A
  • , eyewitness had very accurate recall
  • ,colour of items, age, height, weight estimates recalled less accurately
  • , highest anxiety = highest recall
19
Q

What is the cognitive interview

A

A method of interviewing eye witnesses to help them to retrieve accurate memories

20
Q

What are the 4 stages of the cognitive interview

A

1) Report everything
2) rienstate the context
3) reverse order
4) change perspective

21
Q

What are witnesses asked to do when reinstating context?

A

Return to crime scene in their mind, remember environment and emotions

22
Q

What does reversing the order do in the cognitive interview

A

Prevents dishonesty as it’s harder to lie

23
Q

Enhanced cognitive interview

A

-Focus on social dynamics.
-E.g: when to establish and relinquish eye contact
-Reduce eyewitness anxiety
-minimise distractions
ask open ended questions
-eye witness speak slowly

24
Q

Yuille + Cutshall aims procedure

A

Real life shooting in gun shop in Canada. owner shot a thief dead.
13 participants agreed to take part.
Interviewed 4 months after incident and incident and were compared with origonal police interviews
Witnesses also asked to rate levels of stress/anxiety at time of incident