Eyewitness Testimony

Question 1

Misleading Information

Answer 1

incorrect information given to the EW usually after the event. Can be leading questions & post-event discussion

Question 2

Post-event discussion:

Answer 2

: information added to a memory after the event has occurred if more than one person witnessed the event

Question 3

Example: leading questions

Answer 3

are questions that increase the likelihood that an individual’s schemas will influence them to give a desired answer.

Question 4

Why do leading questions effect EWT?

Answer 4

Response bias: has no effect on memories but influences how they answer (hit vs smashed vs bumped).

Substitution explanation: wording of the leading question can change their memory of the event. (Smashed created false memory of seeing glass on the ground).

Question 5

Response bias

Answer 5

Response bias: has no effect on memories but influences how they answer (hit vs smashed vs bumped).

Question 6

Substitution explanation

Answer 6

wording of the leading question can change their memory of the event. (Smashed created false memory of seeing glass on the ground).

Question 7

Post Event Discussion

Answer 7

Occurs when other-eye witnesses discuss an event and memory becomes contaminated.

Question 8

Research: False Memories

Answer 8

Loftus & Pickerell (2003) studied childhood memories about visiting Disneyland and meeting Bugs Bunny based on fake adverts.

Question 9

Memory conformity

Answer 9

Gabbert et al. (2003):
* Each participant watched a clip of a crime, but from different points of view.
* In pairs, participants discussed what they had seen before answering questions about the clip.
* 71% of participants mistakenly recalled aspects of the crime, compared to control group (no discussion) which had 0% mistaken recall.

Source monitoring theory: eyewitnesses know what they remember but not where they got the information from.

Conformity theory: witnesses’ memories converge because they want to go along with the group.

Question 10

Evaluation: Useful real-life applications

Answer 10

 It is useful to the police.
 Opportunity to improve the legal system & court trials involving witnesses

Question 11

Evaluation: Artificial Tasks

Answer 11

 Limitation of Loftus and Palmer is that they watched a film clip of an accident – very different to actually being there for the event.

Question 12

Evaluation: Individual Differences

Answer 12

 Older people are less accurate than younger people with eyewitness reports.
 Anastasi & Rhodes (2006): people 18-25 and 35-45 were more accurate than those 55-78 years.

Question 13

Johnson and Scott (1976)

Answer 13

• Participants sat in a waiting room and experienced a low and high anxiety situation.
• The low was hearing a casual conversation in the other room and a man walked out with grease on his hands.
• The high was hearing an argument and breaking glass, and a man walked out of the room with a knife covered in blood.
• Participants were to identify both men with pictures.
  Medium, it was an artificial setting
  33% identified the man with the knife.
  49% identified the man with the pen.
  This suggests that weapon focus took place and has an affect on eyewitness testimony.
  High internal validity as there is control over variables.
  Element of deception, and low ecological validity.

Question 14

Yuille and Cutshall (1986)

Answer 14

• Shop owner shot a thief.
• 21 witnesses, 13 took part in the study.
• 4-5 months later, participants were interviewed about the event and interview was compared with police report.
• Participant’s accuracy was tested on number of details, and they were asked to rate stress levels on a 7-point scale.
  High external validity as event took place in a natural surrounding which experimenter did not have much control over.
  Participants were very accurate, not much detail changed but there was difficulty recalling finer details such as age/weight. Those who reported highest level of stress were most accurate. This suggests anxiety doesn’t have a detrimental effect on eyewitness memory and rather can enhance it.

The study has high external validity and the results of it can be generalized due to the nature of the experiment.
Ethical issues such as use of assumed instead of informed consent, and lack of personal protection as a real murder is taking place. Not all participants agreed to be reinterviewed so results may be invalid.

Question 15

Parker et al. (2006)

Answer 15

Interviewed people affected by a hurricane to see if there was a link between memory and amount of damage to homes (measure of anxiety).

High as participants experienced real anxiety in an everyday setting.

Moderate anxiety associated with high accuracy of EWT.
Anxiety can have a positive or negative effect on recall depending on how extreme it is.

Studied moderate anxiety as well as high and low levels so better understanding of relationship between anxiety and witness accuracy.

Anxiety was operationalized as ‘amount of damage to homes.
This may not reflect their experienced anxiety.

Question 16

Valentine and Mesout (2009)

Answer 16

Visitors to a horror labyrinth divided into low anxiety and high anxiety on basis of heart monitor. They described an individual encountered in the labyrinth.

Fairly high. It was a real-life setting, but the anxiety was not caused by anything threatening.

Low anxiety associated with high accuracy of EWT.
Anxiety has a negative effect on recall.

Two measures of anxiety including heart monitor makes it an accurate measure of anxiety.

Quasi-experiment so no random allocation to conditions and participant variables may have been confounding.