Eyewitness testimony (pack 4)

Question 1

between 1989 and 2016 how many exonerations have occurred?

Answer 1

343

Question 2

how many, in percent, of the 343 exonerations, involved eyewitness misidentification

Answer 2

71%

Question 3

what did HUFF (1987) conclude about EWT and wrongful convictions?

Answer 3

300 out of 500 were due to false EWT

Question 4

How does schema theory apply to EWT?

Answer 4

when eyewitnesses encode and store their memory of a crime, they are storing it in a a way that makes sense to them and can be influenced by schemas

Question 5

what is post event information?

Answer 5

any information that arrives after the event that may affect or distort an eye-witness memory of what happened

Question 6

what is the effect of post event information on recall?

Answer 6

reduces the reliability of the testimony that they give as it will impact on the storage and retrieval of their memories of the crime

Question 7

what are leading questions?

Answer 7

questions that are phrased in a way to suggest a particular answer is desired

Question 8

what two types of information does Loftus and Palmer argue that eyewitness memories are constructed off of?

Answer 8

what the witness perceived happening at the time of the event
the information which the witness receives after the event

Question 9

What was the aim of Loftus and Palmers studies?

Answer 9

explore how information provided after an event, in the form of leading questions, might affect peoples memories

Question 10

some of the procedure for Loftus and Palmers first study?

Answer 10

45 students from university of Washington
shown 7 videos of car crashes, ranging from 4 to 30 seconds
after each of the 7 videos, ppts were given a standardised questionnaire asking them to give an account of what they have just seen

CRITICAL QUESTION:
how fast were the cars going when they…… into each other

VERBS:
smashed, collided, bumped, hit and contacted

Question 11

Results from Loftus and Palmer first experiment?

Answer 11

smashed- 40.8 MP/H
contacted- 31.8 MP/H

Question 12

conclusion of Loftus and Palmer first experiment?

Answer 12

found that the change of one verb in the critical question could significantly affect the participants estimate of how fast the car was going

Question 13

what two things did Loftus and Palmer conclude were the reasons for the results in the first study?

Answer 13

1. distortion of memory- because it was reconstructed
   OR
2. response-bias- couldn’t remember speeds and therefore tried to adjust their answer to fit with expectations

Question 14

what was the aim of the second study done by Loftus and Palmer?

Answer 14

aimed to show more conclusively that information provided after an event is capable of distorting memories

Question 15

procedure of second study done by Loftus and Palmer?

Answer 15

150 students from university of Washington
shown a short film of a multiple car crash lasting one minute
then split into 3 conditions and given a questionnaire that included:
1st group- “how fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other”
2nd group- “how fast were the cars going when they hit each other”

the final group were a control and were not asked about the speed of the car

ppt then came back a week later and asked questions
CRITICAL QUESTION WAS:
“did you see any broken glass” YES/NO

Question 16

results of Loftus and Palmers second study?

Answer 16

mean speed estimates of the cars when asked how fast they had “smashed” was significantly higher (10.5 mph) compared to “hit” each other (8mph)

broken glass question
yes SMASHED- 16
yes HIT- 7

Question 17

conclusion for Loftus and palmer second study?

Answer 17

memory is actually reconstructed by post event information

Question 18

Two overall conclusions from both of Loftus and Palmers studies?

Answer 18

eyewitnesses to car crashes are not very good at estimating the speeds of the vehicles involved

eyewitness testimony is unreliable

Question 19

Three strengths of Loftus and Palmers studies?

Answer 19

high validity, as there was always high degree of control over the confounding variables- lab based

it has real life applications- the devlin report recommended trial judges be required to instruct juries that it is not safe to rely an entire verdict on EWT

The study is easy to replicate, this is because of the lab experiment which was very standardised

Question 20

three weaknesses of Loftus and Palmers study?

Answer 20

low ecological validity- does not tell us how we can apply this to real life

low generalisability as they are all students and do not represent the general population

demand characteristics

Question 21

what does the Yerkes-Dodson Law propose?

Answer 21

an increase in arousal improves performance on any given task but only up to a point
once arousal has passed critical level called optimum point, performance tends to decline.
too stressed to perform well

Question 22

How does the Yerkes Dodson law apply to EWT?

Answer 22

amount of attention paid to an event
high levels of arousal reduce the effectiveness of the attention paid to the event and memory is negatively influenced

Question 23

What does the catastrophe theory develop from the Yerkes Dodson law?

Answer 23

it includes the concept of anxiety

Question 24

what does the catastrophe theory propose?

Answer 24

sometimes alongside physiological arousal, feelings of anxiety become so intense that a sudden catastrophic drop off in cognitive performance occurs

Question 25

What study does the catastrophe theory link to?

Answer 25

Valentine & Mesout (2009)

Question 26

what are the two types of anxiety and how do they relate to EWT?

Answer 26

state anxiety- when a persons witnesses a crime, fight or flight response, shown in physiological reactions that impact memory

trait anxiety- person is already anxious, witness a crime, levels may already be high, memory impacted

Question 27

what is weapon focus?

Answer 27

during the attention and encoding stage, a witness focuses on the weapon, which means they do not pay attention to what else is happening and have little memory of the event but detail of the weapon

Question 28

what study links to weapon focus?

Answer 28

Loftus and Messo (1987)

Question 29

what was the study of Loftus and Messo?

Answer 29

36 students watched a slide show of 18 scenes, each shown for 1.5 seconds

showed a gun at the cash register

Question 30

results of Loftus and messo?

Answer 30

38.9%- chose correct photo (control)
11.1%- chose correct photo (experimental)

Question 31

what did Pickel (1998) argue on weapon focus?

Answer 31

argues that weapon focus occurs because of the presence of a weapon is unusual in everyday situations
did a study with a raw chicken, results show poor recall as a weapon

Question 32

what is some evidence that challenges weapon focus?

Answer 32

lacks ecological validity
real-life evidence contradicts lab experiment

Question 33

what did Yuille and Cutshall study to do with weapon focus?

Answer 33

field case study and interviewed witnesses to a real-life shooting in Canada

even though there were leading questions they still gave an accurate account four to five months later

Question 34

what were the overall aims of Valentine and Mesout’s study?

Answer 34

test a prediction from the catastrophe model of anxiety that a situation which induces anxiety can cause an impact on EW recall

test the ability of eye witnesses to correctly identify a person in a real life situation

Question 35

what were the aims of Valentine and Mesout, part 1 study: validation of the state-trait anxiety inventory?

Answer 35

to validate a subjective self report measure of anxiety called the state-trait anxiety inventory form Y

to confirm that experience of the scary person did actually result in high levels of arousal and anxiety

Question 36

what was the research method for valentine and Mesout?

Answer 36

correlation between scores of the SAI and their average heart rate change in measurements

Question 37

what was the procedure for Valentine and Mesout’s study?

Answer 37

18 employees from a London department store were recruited

informed consent obtained and a wireless heart monitor was strapped around the chest, walking slowly for 7 mins around the Labyrinth

ppt reported how they felt using the state anxiety inventory

Question 38

results of part one of Valentine and Mesout’s study?

Answer 38

The mean heart rate was sig. higher in the Labyrinth compared to the baseline

change in heart rate scores were correlated with state anxiety score

Question 39

Conclusions of part one of Valentine and Mesout’s study?

Answer 39

The labyrinth and the ‘scary person’ were successful in inducing physiological arousal

the SAI is a valid measure of state anxiety

Question 40

what was the sample for part two of valentine and mesouts study?

Answer 40

56 people volunteered (27 females and 29 males)

Question 41

what were the materials used in the second study of valentine and mesout?

Answer 41

state-trait anxiety inventory
a questionnaire designed to test free recall and cued recall of scary person
a nine person photograph line up

Question 42

what some of the procedure in valentine and mesouts second study?

Answer 42

completed the STAI in relation to how they felt in the labyrinth
a written free recall on description of scary person
cued recall items on sex age height hair colour
after choosing from line up, ppt rate their confidence in their decision on a scale of 0-100%

Question 43

some results from Valentine and Mesouts second study?

Answer 43

the mean state score of 49 was higher than the state anxiety norms for working adults

the mean state anxiety score was sig. higher for females 52.8 than for males 45.3

Question 44

two conclusions from valentine and mesouts second study?

Answer 44

the experiment supports the catastrophe theory

in a situation that provokes both anxiety and stress, there is a sudden drop in memory performance

Question 45

3 strengths to support Valentine and Mesout?

Answer 45

it was field experiment, high eco validity, more representative than those carried out in lab settings

good controls used, same actor used for each of the participants

the researcher took additional measures to validate the questionnaire used in part 1 to make sure they were measuring state anxiety, correlated heart rate with state anxiety

Question 46

two weaknesses of valentine and mesouts study?

Answer 46

may not generalise to everybody, as the sample was made up of volunteers, enjoy scary things, influence the anxiety they experienced during the visit

ethical guidelines not always adhered to, important to ensure ppt did not know what was being experimented on