Eyewitness Memory - complete

Question 1

What is a witness?

Answer 1

Any person with information about what they have experienced e.g. bystander, victim and suspect

Question 2

What is the role of a witness?

Answer 2

Provide suspect descriptions, indicate lines of enquiry, direct towards sources of information and identify suspects

Question 3

What is the role of testimony?

Answer 3

Provides key investigative leads (Kebbell & Milne, 1998)
Increase likelihood of perpetrator being apprehended (Lieppe, 1980)
Prosecution perceives testimony as more important than offenders confession (Wolchover et al. 1996)
Courts rely heavily on witness accounts

Question 4

What are the stages of memory?

Answer 4

Encoding
Storage
Retrieval

Question 5

What are the problems with reconstruction?

Answer 5

Fragile
Memory can fail at any of the three processes 
Memory is incomplete 
Prone to errors
Affected by external influences

Question 6

What is Fuzzy Trace Theory?

Answer 6

Brainerd & Reyna (2004)
2 forms:
Verbatim - word for word, literal memory of event, Direct retrieval
Gist - Meaning behind event, Reconstruct retrieval

Question 7

Which is stronger; verbatim or gist?

Answer 7

Gist - lasts longer, less susceptible to suggestion

Question 8

What variables affect eyewitness memory?

Answer 8

Estimator variables -
affect memory and are beyond police control e.g. event variables
System variables - variables that affect memory and are in the polices control e.g. interview technique

Question 9

What are specific Estimator Variables?

Answer 9

A - mount length of time witness watched event
D - istance between witness and event
V - isability conditions
O - bstructions when observing
K - nown to the witness?
A - ny particular reason for witness remembering event?
T - ime since event
E- rrors in description compared with known events

Question 10

What is Weapon Focus Effect?

Answer 10

Fawcett et al. (2013)When faced with a weapon memories for the rest of the scene are less detailed - object related = decrease in memory performance

Question 11

Why does Weapon Focus effect memory?

Answer 11

Physiological/ emotional narrows attentional beam

Cognitive demands of processing unusual object that does not fit with our schema of event

Question 12

What are Central Details?

Answer 12

For witnesses: aspects of event that help make sense of event.

For police: details that will help identify and find suspect

Question 13

Central vs Peripheral details

Answer 13

Memory for central details stronger than peripheral (Christianson et al. 1991)

Peripheral more likely to be susceptible to suggestion (Dalton et al. 2006)

Difference in central and peripheral only exists for negative events: better memory for central than peripheral (Talarico et al. 2009) but remember more peripheral details for positive events than negative ones

Question 14

What emotions have been studied in relation to memory?

Answer 14

Emotions:
Arousal = readiness for activity such as muscular readiness, heightened state or cortical functioning

Stress = psychological tension such as anxiety and fear

Trauma = emotionally painful, distressing or shocking

Question 15

How does emotion affect memory?

Answer 15

Attentional narrowing (Easterbrook 1959)
More post-stimulus elaboration of event (Christianson et al. 1991)

Question 16

What are System Variables?

Answer 16

How you should interview, when you should interview, who should conduct interview and what should happen before the interview?

Question 17

What are the errors that could arise in retrieval?

Answer 17

Omission errors and errors of commission

Question 18

What are Omission Errors?

Answer 18

Details that a witness leave out of their testimony. Kebbell & Milne(1998) - witnesses rarely recall as much as police officers would like

Question 19

What are 2 types of recall?

Answer 19

Free recall - gives most accurate information but often things excluded (Lipton, 1977)
Recognition recall - cues to help increase amount recalled (Tulving, 1974)

Question 20

What are Errors of Commission?

Answer 20

Details that did not occur during the event, but the witness includes in their testimony.

Reconstructing memories is prone to errors e.g. suggestibility

Question 21

What are primary and secondary codes?

Answer 21

Bower (1967)
Primary - label the event
Secondary - label primary codes

Question 22

What are the problems with when police interview?

Answer 22

Delay between initial interview and trial or due tom disclosure of crime e.g. sexual abuse
Forgetting cure - more time more forgotten (Ebbinghaus, 1964)

Question 23

Research on the Effects of Delay

Answer 23

Turtle et al. (1994) - P’s who recall event 3 weeks later recalled 43% less than those in the immediate recall group
Flin et al. (1992) 12% less recalled by group interviewed five months later in comparison to immediate interview group
Tuckey & Brewer, 2003) - depends on whether detail fits with schema. Over time schema consistent and schema inconsistent details are remembered better than schema irrelevant ones

Question 24

Results of Yuille et al (1994) - Stress and delay

Answer 24

Stressful traffic stops= less informative in week 12 than week 1 but equally accurate

Non- stressful = equally informative in week 12 and week 1 but less accurate

Stress fixes certain accurate memories but remember fewer other details

Question 25

What is suggestibility?

Answer 25

Powers et al. (1979)- extent to which people accept post event information and incorporate that into their recollection

Question 26

What is immediate suggestibility?

Answer 26

After viewing the event and whilst being interviewed - leading questions can occur leading to a suggestible response

Question 27

What types of suggestive questions are there?

Answer 27

Misleading/ leading questions = suggests a correct answer or includes a detail not previously mentioned by the interviewee

Misleading - the detail included or the answer suggested is incorrect

Leading - the detail included/ answer suggested is correct

Question 28

Loftus and Palmer (1974)

Answer 28

Viewed car crash then asked how fast was the car going when it…
‘contacted’, ‘hit’, ‘smashed’ etc.

Speed estimations differed according to word used.

One week later - participants who were asked using ‘smashed’ significantly more likely to say they saw broken glass than other conditions yet there was no broken glass.

Question 29

What is compliance?

Answer 29

The interviewee does not actually believe the suggestible response they give, then they are being compliant

Question 30

What is the Suggestibility Scale?

Answer 30

Gudjonsson’s Scale
Used in appeals to assess vulnerability

Watch video - Recall everything (immediate free recall) - wait 50 mins - recall everything again (delayed free recall) - Given 20 questions with 15 leading - Negative feedback - 20 questions again = shift

Question 31

What is delayed suggestibility?

Answer 31

exposed to misleading information between viewing the event and being interviewed.

Can be presented through fake newspaper article, another questionnaire session and written summary

Question 32

What is conformity?

Answer 32

Can occur in between viewing the event and interview. This is where p’s discuss event with co-witness and during the interview they include information which fits with co-witnesses.

Question 33

Research of the affect of co-witnesses

Answer 33

Paterson and Kemp (2006)

Undergrads watched robbery video

Conditions: different mediums of misinformation e.g. leading questions, media , co-witness discussion

Recognition Questionnaire Accuracy for Misled Details - co-witness discussion significantly less accurate than other conditions

Question 34

What factors enhance suggestibility?

Answer 34

Response Bias
Memory Alteration
Source - Monitoring Failure

Question 35

What is Response Bias?

Answer 35

Participants choose that answer because they are consciously aware that it is the suggested one and think that is what they are meant to answer.

Question 36

What is Memory Alteration?

Answer 36

The original memory is overwritten with misinformation called “destructive updating” (Loftus, 1979)

This misleading suggestion permanently replaces the original memory

BUT
Mcloskey et al (1985) suggested that if memory is erased, misled p’s should have lower scores than control but results show no difference between misled and control

Question 37

What is Source Monitoring Failure?

Answer 37

Remember the detail but don’t remember if its something you actually sae or heard or read about.

Framework: Source is not stored in memory. Suggestion most effective when - misled memory is similar to witnessed event and memory does not include info indicating source.

Question 38

Susceptibility to Suggestion

Answer 38

Not all individuals are susceptible
Impact of post event info varies due to credibility of messenger
Police officers perceived as extremely credible
Credibility + knowledge = particularly susceptible to suggestibility

Question 39

Individual Differences and Suggestibility

Answer 39

Age - Children and Elderly more suggestible (Ceci et al. 2002)
Learning Disability - People with intellectual disabilities can be suggestible to misleading questions (Maras et al. 2013)
Ridley and Gudjonsson, 2013) - anxiety, self-esteem and negative life events

Question 40

What extent are we suggestible?

Answer 40

False memories - full recollection of event e.g. child abuse

False beliefs - not created full memory but believed something happened

Question 41

How often are false memories made?

Answer 41

37% p’s reported some form of false memory e.g hospitalisation (Wade et al. 2010)

Question 42

Why are false memories made?

Answer 42

Naturally occurring or suggestion-dependant.

Naturally occurring - gap filling, providing extra details

Suggestion dependant - incorporating incorrect details from misinformation e.g. doctored photographs, confederate influence.

Question 43

What is the strength of false memories?

Answer 43

Time - p’s informed after experiment that the memory is false due to suggestion but still go away believing in memories.

Behaviour - Scoboria et al. (2008) creating false memories of being sick after eating certain food then affects eating behaviour

Question 44

Describe plan for essay: Critically discuss the extent to which eyewitness memory of an event is a true reflection of the event that was witnessed.

Answer 44

• Explain what is a witness and the role they play
• Stages of memory
• Problems with Reconstruction
• Suggestibility (response bias, memory alteration and source monitoring failure)
• Police using suggestive questions
• False memories