Eyewitness Testimoney Flashcards
What does eyewitness testimony mean
⚫️Evidence provided
➡️by the witness to a crime
What does post-event information mean
⚫️Misleading information
➡️added to question
➡️after incidents occurred
What does misleading info/question mean
⚫️increasing the likelihood
➡️that participants schemas
➡️influence them
➡️to give desired answers
Give an example for the study of accuracy of eyewitness testimony
⚫️loftus &palmer found
➡️participants where asked to estimate the speed of the cars
➡️in a film concerning traffic accident
➡️were affected by being asked how fast the car was going
➡️when they either contacted, hit, bumped collided or smashed into each other
➡️implying leading questions affected participants schemas
➡️influencing to give desired asnwers
➡️more participants remembered a week later
➡️seen non existent broken glass
➡️when given the word smashed rather than hit
➡️suggesting that at recall
➡️misleading info is reconstructed
➡️with material from original memory
Give an evaluation for the study of accuracy of eyewitness testimony
⚫️consequences of inaccurate memories
➡️are minimal in research settings
➡️compared to real-life incidents.
➡️foster et el
➡️showed eyewitness testimony was more accurate
➡️in real life crimes than it was in stimulations
⚫️participants in research
➡don’t expect to be deliberately misled
➡️by researchers
➡️therefore inaccurate recall should be expected
What does anxiety mean
An unpleasant state of emotional arousal
Give a research study for anxiety
⚫loftus et al found
➡️ if a person carrying a weapon
➡️witness focusses on the weapon rather than persons face
➡️negatively affecting ability to recall facial details of armed criminals
➡️supporting the idea that anxiety
➡️can divert attention from important features of a situation
Suggest an evaluation of anxiety
⚫️many research into anxiety and eyewitness testimony
➡️laboratory based
➡️real life situations conflicting results occur
⚫️yuille and cushell found
➡️witnesses to a fatal shooting with high arousal
➡️recalled fewer items correctly than those with lowers levels
➡️but witness with very high arousal
➡️had extremely accurate results
➡️suggesting support for the inverted U-hypothesis
⚫️however fruzetti believes
➡️those with very high arousal
➡️had been closer to events
➡️which assisted their recalls
Give research studies for age
⚫️Anastasi & Rhodes
➡️used participants aged 18 –78 years
➡️They found young and middle aged participants
➡️were more accurate at recognising photographs
➡️than older participants.
⚫️Yarmey
➡️found older people made more recall errors than younger people
➡️found no differences in the ability of older participants
➡️to recall physical characteristics of a young woman.
Give an evaluation for age
⚫️elias et al
➡️believes it is unclear why age effects occur
➡️younger adults may perform better
➡️as their used to tests
➡️and are more motivated to achieve
➡️some elderly people have poor physical health
➡️which impacts on memory
⚫️many people use elderly people from nursing home
➡️who may be non-typical in having poor memory ability
➡️thus not form representative samples
What does cognitive interview mean
⚫️method of increasing the accuracy
➡️of eyewitness testimony recall
➡️in police interviews
What is the cognitive interview scedule
⚫️change of narrative order
➡️recount the scene in different chronological orders
➡️e.g. From end to beginning
⚫️change of perspective
➡️recount the scene from different perspectives
➡️e.g from the offenders point of view
⚫️context reinstatement
➡️return to both the
➡️environmental and emotional context of the crime
➡️e.g weather and feelings
⚫️report everything
➡️recall all information
➡️even if it appears to have little relevance
What does enhanced cognitive interview mean
⚫️advanced method of interviewing witnesses
➡️that overcomes problems of
➡️inappropriate sequencing of questions
What are the extra features of enhanced cognitive interview include
⚫️minimisation of distraction
⚫️reduction to anxiety
⚫️encouraging the witness to speak slowly
⚫️asking open-ended questions
Suggest research which supports the cognitive interview
⚫️geiselman et al found ➡️cognitive interview procedure ➡️compared facourably against ➡️standard interview technique and a hypothesis interview ➡️suggesting the technique is valid
⚫️fisher et al
➡️assessed the performance of polic officers
➡️in gathering facts when using the enhanced cognitive interview
➡️compared to a standard interview technique
➡️finding ECI to be superior
