Factors affecting accuracy of eyewitness testimony Flashcards
what is a schema?
- packages of info abt people and objects in the world around us
- mental shortcuts
- memory influenced by schemas
- memory changes to fit pre existing bias
what is reconstructive memory?
- memory isn’t an accurate recording of events
- reconstructed recording and may have errors
what are leading questions?
- questions that may imply a certain answer
- influence how memory is recalled
- due to an actual change in memory
- due to emotional pressure to give certain response
what is post event discussion?
- ## recalling events by one witness alters the accuracy of recall by another
what is memory conformity?
- witness goes along with the accounts for social approval
research support: Loftus and Palmer (1974) traffic accidents
- shown clips of traffic accidents
- asked leading question w/ verb changing about how cars crashed
- more extreme the verb the higher estimated mph of the car
- contacts= 31.8
- smashed= 40.8
- misleading info can influence recall
research support: Loftus and Palmer (1974) traffic accidents, broken glass
- shown car crash clip w/ no broken glass
- asked how fast car was going w verbs ‘hit’ and ‘smashed’ or control group
- after a week asked if there was any broken glass
- ‘smashed’= 2x more likely to say yes than ‘hit’
- leading questions can be long lasting and effect memory
research support: Gabbert et al. (2000) crime shot from diff perspectives
- shown vid of crime shot to pairs of ppl
- diff info available in each shot
- 71% of pairs discussed aspects of the video they didnt see
- compared to 0% who didnt discuss what they had seen
- witnesses change their accounts of crime to match other witnesses
- want social approval= memory conformity
research support: Bonder et al. (2009) repeated Gabbert
- similar to gabbert but pp told not to share info in their testimony
- shared significantly less info compared to other witnesses
- if warned about dangers of post event discussion its effects can be reduced
what is anxiety?
- mental state of arousal
- feelings of extreme concern and tension
- physiological changes e.g increased HR
anxiety in EWT:
- EWT usually used after violent crimes
- hihg anxiety
- research in EWT ofte has no emotional impact on the pp= low validity
how does anxiety reduce recall?
- high anxiety= reduced recall of the criminals face
- weapons cause anxiety= get distracted and focus on them instead
how does anxiety increase recall?
- arousal increases alertness
- strong emotions could increase memory encoding
what is the Yerks-Dodson laws of arousal?
- EWT increases as anxiety increases as the witness becomes alert
- at a point anxiety becomes too high
- too much stress= lowe accuracy
research on anxiety and EWT: Johnson and Scott (1976) man walking out of lab
- pp placed outside lab, listening to convos
- 1)normal convo, man walks out w/ greasy hand or pen
- 2) hostile, glass breaking, man walks out with knife covered in blood
- asked to identify the man from 50 photos
- identified the man with the pen easier than man with the knife
- more focus on weapon
Evaluation: strength, led to real life applications
- cognitive interview was developed
- designed to reduce the influence of schemas on the accuracy of recall
research: peters (1988) healthcare centre w injection
- patients at a real healthcare centre were given real injections by nurse w/ researcher present
- patients better at recognising the researcher than the nurse
- anxiety caused by having an injection, and weapon focus on the syringe
Evaluation: strength, research was done in lab studies BUT might have diff result
- staged crashes and crimes shown in studies were in labs not court rooms
- pp aware there’s a lack of consequences for providing inaccurate EWT
- irl under oath EWT could be more accurate as what they say could= conviction
research (limitation): Yuille and Cutshall (1968) interview after deadly shooting
- interviewed 13 witnesses of a deadly shooting after 4 months
- witnesses rejected leading questions
- those most stressed had most accurate EWT
- misleading info and anxiety isnt big problem for real world EWT
Evaluation: limitation, suffer from demand characteristics
- lab studies can have demand characteristics
- want to ‘help’ researcher by giving responses they think the researcher wants
- during leading questions they may pick up the language and have response bias