eyewitness memory

Question 1

what does an eyewitness provide

Answer 1

• descriptions of what happened
• descriptions of the offenders
• identification of offenders
• descriptions of the vehicles involved

Question 1

eyewitnesses

Answer 1

• people who were external to the event (ie. someone who witnessed it)
• people who were involved in the event (can be the victim)
• victim

Question 2

memory processes (encoding, storage, retrieval)

Answer 2

• encoding: getting information into memory banks
• storage: keeping information in memory
• retrieval: reactivation or reconstruction of information from our memory stores

Question 3

encoding eyewitness memory

Answer 3

• factors that may influence accuracy and detail in eyewitness memory include: attention, emotional arousal, stress

Question 4

inattentional blindness

Answer 4

• people miss events or details that are within their visual field if their attention is elsewhere
• may be related to selective attention (the ability to focus on/prioritize relevant information while filtering out irrelevant information, we do this all the time)

Question 5

explanations of inattentional blindness

Answer 5

• did not look at the stimulus (research challenges that this is the key cause of it but findings show otherwise)
• inattentional amnesia (information is seen but immediately forgotten; research found info can be registered in STM but not stored in long)
• lack of explicit awareness of the environment (some sensory awareness of information but doesn’t meet threshold of awareness, research showed participants lack of awareness while brain still registered stimuli)

Question 6

research has shown that people who are attending to something failed to notice:

Answer 6

• unicycling clown
• money
• a fight

Question 7

evidence that inattentional blindness may be less likely when threats are introduced

Answer 7

• results are inconsistent
• may be impacted by cognitive load

Question 8

inattentional blindness and experts

Answer 8

• radiologists examining scans for lung nodules missed a gorilla inserted into the scan
• military personnel monitoring CCTV missed a woman with suspicious package and in a pirate costume
• police officers did not notice a gun on the dash during a simulated traffic stop

Question 9

emotional arousal of eyewitnesses

Answer 9

• people may experience negative emotions at the time of encoding details of the event
• ie. fear, stress, anxiousness, disbelief

Question 10

emotional arousal and memory

Answer 10

• easterbrook hypothesis: people experience attentional narrowing (tunnel vision) during high emotional arousal, may result in focus on specific details and indistinct memory on peripheral details, supported by research
• level of arousal may negatively impact the amount recalled without having a similar negative effect on accuracy

Question 11

physiological arousal and memory

Answer 11

• eyewitnesses may experience a stress or fight or flight response = increased adrenaline/heart rate/cortisol and decreased heart rate variability
• may impact: focus (ie. weapons focus effect), encoding

Question 12

eyewitnesses memory retrieval

Answer 12

• recall: generating previously encoded information
• recognition: selecting previously encoded information from options provided

Question 13

eyewitness recall conditions

Answer 13

• expected to recall as many details as possible
• respond to repeated questioning
• experience pressure to recall
• more opportunities for exposure to post-event information

Question 14

blind interviewing

Answer 14

• the interviewer is not aware of details of the case when they prepare and engage in interview

Question 15

informed interviewing

Answer 15

• the interviewer is aware of details of the case when they prepare for and engage in the interview
• benefits: can interpret and organize information on the framework of what is already known
• risks: confirmation bias, potential for leading questions

Question 16

repeated questioning

Answer 16

• an event that was not experienced can be recalled as if it were experienced when questioned repeatedly
• may be related to the reliance of the same neural systems when imagining vs remembering
• can lead to person imaging the event and filling details
• source monitoring errors: being able to recognize the source of your memories

Question 17

post-event information

Answer 17

• exposure can occur through: cued or leading questioning, subtly introduced information, confirmatory feedback (“that’s who we thought”), discussions, media

Question 18

misinformation effect

Answer 18

• when people are provided misinformation about the event after it happens, it’s often confirmed in later tests and integrated into their memory of the event

Question 19

source monitoring errors

Answer 19

• includes reality monitoring: errors in differentiating memories created by internal sources (ie. imagination) and external sources (ie. sensing)
• also includes errors in differentiating between various external sources, such as being told from another witness or experiencing the event

Question 20

canadian context

Answer 20

• recommendations include: provide opportunity for witness to review their previous statements and confirm accuracy, do not interview witnesses together, do not prompt a witness with clues or hints, never tell a witness they are wrong or right
• focus is on protecting eyewitness evidence from contamination