factors affecting accuracy of ewt - misleading information ao3

Question 1

strength of research into misleading info - real world application

Answer 1

P; a strength of research into misleading infomatio is its practical applications in the real world
E: consequences of inaccurate ewt due to misleading info can be devasting eg wrongful convictions
E: loftus believes that leading questions can have distorting affect on memory that research on this has led to police officers changing their questioning technique in order to avoid the distorting affect of misleading info
L; research into this area can make an important positive differennce to lives of real people by improving the way legal system works and increasing the chance of witnesses giving sound evidence and decreasing likelyhood of wrongful convictions

Question 2

counterpoint to pracitcal applications of ewt

Answer 2

P- practical app of ewt may be affected by issues w research
E- eg loftus and palmer ppts watched film clips in a lab which cannot reprodice the stress of associated w witnessing a real event
E; also foster et al 1994 points out thta what ppts remeber has important condequences in the real world but not in research which could mean pprts are less motivated to be accurate
L; this suggests that researchers such as loftus may be too pessimistic about the effects of misleading info and that ewt may be more relaibale than many studies suggest

Question 3

weakness of memory conformity in ped - evidence agiant mem con

Answer 3

p: a limitation of the memory conformity explanation is evidence that ped actually alters eyewitness testiomony
E- skagerberg and wright 2008 showed ppts film clips. there were 2 versions for example in one mangers hair dark brown, light brown in the other
ppts discussed clips in pairs each having seen different versions
E- results showed taht they did not report what they has seen in clips or what they had heard from the co witnesses but a blend of the 2 eg a common answer to the hair question wasnt light or dark brown but medium brown
L; this suggests taht memory itself is distorted through cintamination by post event discussion rather than as a resukt of memory conformity

Question 4

Limitation of substitution explanation - evidence against

Answer 4

One limitation of the substitution explanation is that eyewitness testimony is more accurate for some aspects of an event than for others.
For example Sutherland and Hayne (2001) showed participants a video clip. When participants were later asked misleading questions, they recall was more accurate for central details of the event than for peripheral ones.
Presumably the participants attention was focused on the,central features of the event and these memories were relatively resistant to misleading information.
This suggests that the original memories for central details survived and were not distorted, and this outcome is not predicted by the substitution exclamation
ANn imitation of the substution explanation is that evewitn