Eye Witness Testimony: MEMORY Flashcards
What does the focus on eye witness testimony observe?
The ability of people to accurately remember the details of events which they have observed. e.g: crimes, accidents
WHat two factors effect EWT?
- Misleading information
- Anxiety
What is misleading information?
2 types are??
Incorrect information given to an eyewitness
1) Leading questions
2) Post - event discussion
What are Leading questions
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
Who studies Leading questions EWT
what did they do?
Findings
Conclusion
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
What is post event discussion
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
Who studied the effects of post event discussion on recall
Gabber et Al
Gabbet et Al procedure
- 2 experimental groups watched the same clip from different perspectives
- both pp. Discussed West they had seen before completing a test on recall
Findings of Gabbert et al
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
What is anxiety
A state of emotional and physical arousal
Emotions: worrying thoughts and feelings of tention.
Physical: increased heart rate, sweatiness
What is the weapon focus effect
A weapon causing anxious effects of physiological arousal in the body which prevents us paying attention to important cues e.g face
What did Johnson and Scott (1976) study
Weapon focus effect
What we’re the two conditions of Johnson and Scott’s research
Low anxiety condition = greasy pen
High anxiety condition =bloody knife
Which condition had the higher percentage of accurate recall when shown 50 different pictures of people
Low anxiety (49%) +.
Comparer to high axiety = 33%
Which condition had the higher percentage of accurate recall when shown 50 different pictures of people
Low anxiety (49%) +.
Comparer to high axiety = 33%
What is the Yerkes - Dodson law?
- Low levels of arousal/anxiety =low recall
- there is an optimum ammount of anxiety = optimum recall
- can be too much anxiety, recall declines
What did Yuille and Cutshall (1986) study
Effects of anxiety on accuracy of recall
Findings of Yuille and Cutshall study
- , eyewitness had very accurate recall
- ,colour of items, age, height, weight estimates recalled less accurately
- , highest anxiety = highest recall
What is the cognitive interview
A method of interviewing eye witnesses to help them to retrieve accurate memories
What are the 4 stages of the cognitive interview
1) Report everything
2) rienstate the context
3) reverse order
4) change perspective
What are witnesses asked to do when reinstating context?
Return to crime scene in their mind, remember environment and emotions
What does reversing the order do in the cognitive interview
Prevents dishonesty as it’s harder to lie
Enhanced cognitive interview
-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
Yuille + Cutshall aims procedure
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
