eyewitness testimony - Post-event info

Question 1

eyewitness testimony

Answer 1

evidence supplied by people who witness a specific event or crime, relying only on their memory

Question 2

are eyewitness testimonies inaccurate and why

Answer 2

yes

people tend to interpret what they see in terms of what they expect to happen

Cutler and Penrod (1995) - eyewitnesses can be ‘100% accurate and still be 100% wrong’

Question 3

how might reconstructive memory change the way an event is remembered - 4 ways

Answer 3

schemas and confabulation

simplification

rationalisation

transformation

Question 4

schemas and confabulation

Answer 4

pre existing ideas a person has about a subject, and they may use this information to fill in gaps in the memory

Question 5

simplification

Answer 5

information which isn’t understood/ doesn’t already have a schema is less likely to be remembered

Question 6

transformation

Answer 6

changing the order of events to fit preconceptions

Question 7

rationalisation

Answer 7

using our own social norms whene creating the memory

Question 8

post-event information

Answer 8

additional information about the event after it occurs

Question 9

misinformation effect

Answer 9

any incorrect information seen after the crime that influences the memory of the original event

Question 10

why can it be difficult to reverse the effect of misinformation

Answer 10

once a person comes to believe the memory, it becomes difficult to change as it becomes part of their autobiography (Wright and Gaskell 1995)

Question 11

why does the misinformation effect occur

Answer 11

original information and the misleading information presented after the fact get blended together in memory - confabulation

the misleading information actually overwrites the original memory of the event

since the misleading information is more recent in memory, it tends to be easier to retrieve. This is an example from the recency effect

the pertinent data from the original event may never have been encoded into the memory in the first place, so when the misleading information is presented, it is encorporated into the mental narrative to fill in gaps

participants rememeber the misinformation but they do not remember where they heard it from - referred to as ‘source monitoring error’

Question 12

Loftus’ bugs bunny study

Answer 12

she showed people an advert for disneyland that had bugs bunny on it

she then asked people about their prior trips to disneyland and the characters they met

many people said they met bugs bunny and had details about their interactions such as ‘shaking his hand’

bugs bunny is a warner bros character and would not be at disneyland

Question 13

Bartletts study into reconstructive memory using a Native American story

Answer 13

read ppts a Native American story (the war of ghosts) to a group of Europeans and later asked them to recall the story

there was a number of mistakes in recall

concluded that participants were changing unfamilliar information to make it fit their own culture and contained more and more challenges with each recollection

shows that we tend to ignore information that is not compatible with existing schemas

Question 14

how does the fact that we are selective information processors impact EWT

Answer 14

we cannot process all the information we receive and therefore filter out parts that are not important to us

aspects that are important become exaggerated

Question 15

leading questions - reconstructive hypothesis

Answer 15

the two bits of information of the event go into one memory

Question 16

leading question

Answer 16

contains information previously unknown to the witness

Question 17

what study can be used to demonstrate the effects of leading questions

Answer 17

Loftus & Palmer - Car Crash study

Question 18

how may police try to improve the accuracy of EWT

Answer 18

police try to ask non-leading questions and also try and gain a statement as soon as the event has occurred

reduce the chance of witness’s memory becoming distorted by post event information

Question 19

Cohen (1993) - people are more likely to be misled if

Answer 19

the false information they have been given contains insignificant details

false information is given after a delay - so the memory has had time to fade

they have no reason to distrust it

Question 20

EACH - supporting evidence

Answer 20

Loftus & Palmer

Bartlett - reconstructive memory

Question 21

EACH - opposing evidence

Answer 21

P - Yuille and Cutshall (1986)
E - They found that when interviewing witnesses 5 months after the crime using leading questions they still recalled events accurately
E - Therefore refuting the idea that post-event information will alter a witnesses memory

Question 22

EACH - applications

Answer 22

P - Yes
E - It suggests that when gathering EWT accounts the police should avoid leading questions and post-event info
E - Therefore accounts will be more reliable and techniques such as the cognitive interview use these methods to ensure a detailed accurate account

Question 23

EACH - alternative explanation

Answer 23

P - Flashbulb memory can be used as an alternative explanation
E - It states that a memory with high levels of stress due to significance will be remembered accurately in a lot of detail
E - Therefore it suggests that if you are very stressed you will remember everything in detail due to its impact