Eyewitness Testimony

Question 1

What are the main causes for poor eyewitness testimonys?

Answer 1

Leading questions
Post event discussion
Anxiety affects focus during
Age

Question 2

How does leading questions affect EWT?

Answer 2

Response bias- Doesn’t affect memory but does affect answer- Loftus & Palmer– The verb used to describe how fast the cars were going changed, two variations “Hit” and “Smashed”. They were asked if they saw any broken glass.

Substitution- Does affect memory of incident and therefore answer— Loftus - “Did you see a broken headlight?”/ “Did you see THE broken headlight?”

Question 3

Explanation of and study into post event discussion?

Answer 3

Memory contamination- Mixing other witnesses info with yours.
Memory conformity- Changing your belief to go along with others because you think they are correct.

Gabbert et al, two participants of different ages watched a video of a staged crime, they were then exposed to misleading info through post event discussion with a confederate.

Question 4

Evaluation of leading questions?

Answer 4

Research evidence supports- Loftus. However used lab exp, artificial, low ecological validity.
Real life application to how police conduct interviews with police.

Question 5

How does anxiety affect EWT? A study into anxiety?

Answer 5

Yerkes and Dodson
Inverted U theory
Memory recall is more accurate at optimum levels of arousal/anxiety.

Loftus- Weapon focus- 1.Pen and grease. 2.Knife with blood on it. Asked to identify the criminal in photos. Condition 1 more accurate

Question 6

What are the 4 techniques used in the cognitive?

Answer 6

REPORT EVERYTHING - Every detail
REINSTATE CONTEXT- Visuals the environment and crime scene
REVERSE ORDER- Reported in different
chronological order, prevents dishonesty and prevents the expectations of how events could unfold affecting recall.
CHANGE PERSPECTIVE