eyewitness testimony - Post-event info Flashcards
eyewitness testimony
evidence supplied by people who witness a specific event or crime, relying only on their memory
are eyewitness testimonies inaccurate and why
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’
how might reconstructive memory change the way an event is remembered - 4 ways
schemas and confabulation
simplification
rationalisation
transformation
schemas and confabulation
pre existing ideas a person has about a subject, and they may use this information to fill in gaps in the memory
simplification
information which isn’t understood/ doesn’t already have a schema is less likely to be remembered
transformation
changing the order of events to fit preconceptions
rationalisation
using our own social norms whene creating the memory
post-event information
additional information about the event after it occurs
misinformation effect
any incorrect information seen after the crime that influences the memory of the original event
why can it be difficult to reverse the effect of misinformation
once a person comes to believe the memory, it becomes difficult to change as it becomes part of their autobiography (Wright and Gaskell 1995)
why does the misinformation effect occur
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’
Loftus’ bugs bunny study
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
Bartletts study into reconstructive memory using a Native American story
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
how does the fact that we are selective information processors impact EWT
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
leading questions - reconstructive hypothesis
the two bits of information of the event go into one memory
leading question
contains information previously unknown to the witness
what study can be used to demonstrate the effects of leading questions
Loftus & Palmer - Car Crash study
how may police try to improve the accuracy of EWT
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
Cohen (1993) - people are more likely to be misled if
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
EACH - supporting evidence
Loftus & Palmer
Bartlett - reconstructive memory
EACH - opposing evidence
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
EACH - applications
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
EACH - alternative explanation
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
