Factors Affecting EWT Flashcards
Reconstructive errors
A01
- Based on the reconstructive memory model
- The idea that we make sense of the world and information by trying to fit it into schemas
- Schemas=‘packets’ of information corresponding to frequently encountered people, objects or situations; can predict what will happen
- For information to fit into our schemas, sometimes it is distorted in some way
- Meaning memory encoded is not the same as what we encounter= recall is inaccurate
Reconstructive errors
A01- Problem for EWT
- Witnesses to crimes, rather than recalling events exactly how they happened, are creating reconstructions of crime based on their own schematic understanding of the world
- The reconstructive memory model suggests that people rely on their schemas to rationalize and in turn confabulation information to makes sense of events such as crimes. It suggests that EWT is unreliable as people may fill in gaps in their memory of a crime with their own generalizations about the world, such as stereotypes
Post event information- misinformation effect
A01
- Following on from the idea that memory is reconstructive it is though witness accounts can become distorted as witnesses don’t just use past experiences and information from the crime and their schemas.
- They also take on information or leading statements from those around them, the questioner, media etc when recalling the event
- Those interviewed over a long period of time may have more altering accounts, what they experience eg from the media, interviews etc may impact what they though they saw
- Can result in inaccurate information being recalled at critical times, other information can confabulation information already encoded
- Post event information= any information that arrives after the event which may affect a witness’s memory of what happened
- Sources= media, other witnesses, lawyers and police
Post event information- Misinformation effect
A03- Supporting research
Loftus and Palmer (1974)
- Participants viewed 2 films of a car crash
- Asked how fas the cars were going when they “hit”, “collided”, “bumped”, “smashed”, “contacted”- post event information tended to mislead
- Participants who were asked using “smashed” gave higher estimates of speed= mean speed- 40.5 mph
- Compared to those asked using “Hit”= mean speed- 34.0mph
Leading Questions
A01
- A question which contains information previous unknown to witness, has potential to effect the witnesses understanding of events
- New information is implanted in recollection of what happened eg from police or lawyers
- Known as the misinformation effect
- Makes EWT unreliable inaccurate information conveyed through a leading question may be incorporated into an EW account, makes recall of event inaccurate, hence unreliable
Leading Questions
A03- Supporting Research
Loftus and Pickerell (1995)
- Suggests possibility of implanting false memories; ppts asked to try to remember incidents from childhood
- relative helped with 3 real incidents and 1 fake
- Fake one being lost in a shopping mall as a child (it was checked to make sure this never actually occurred)
- Aimed to find if ppts recalled ‘being lost’ along with real events when relative asked them if they could remember details
- 25% recalled being lost, 5 claimed they remembered at a later date
- Concluded that memory can be altered via suggestion and lead to remembering things/ entire events differently
- Suggests misinformation effect can massively impact the accuracy of EWT
Witness factors- anxiety and stress
A01
- Eyewitness experience a degree of stress/ anxiety when witnessing real life crimes of violence
- It suggests our ability to recall accurate information is impaired as we experience increased stress/arousal
- According to YERKES DODSON’S LAW- an increase in arousal improves performance but only up to a point, once arousal has pasted optimum, performance tends to decline
- Is thought witnessing violence raises witnesses arousal level past optimum= leading to poorer memory performance
Witness factors- anxiety and stress
A03- Opposing Theory
Flash bulb memories
-Opposes reconstructive errors and anxiety in making EWT unreliable
-suggests memory takes a photograph of an event which has an emotional impact on us
-Argues or memories of these events will stay accurate and clear for a long period of time
-Yuille and Cutshall (1986)
Investigated witnesses who had observed a gun shooting, interviews took place with misleading questions incorporated to see if the EW accounts were affected.
-They found 84.56% accuracy in the central witness accounts and 79.31% accuracy in the peripheral witnesses accounts
-This level of accuracy maintained similar and high 4/5months later, with misleading questions having little impact on the accounts
Witness factors- anxiety and stress
A03- Supporting Research
Valentine and Mesout (2009)
- Found when experiencing a scary tour of the London dungeons and encountering a scary individual: those who reported lower anxiety recalled significantly more compared to high anxiety
- 75% of correct descriptors of the scary individual scored below the median state anxiety score of 49.0, correctly identified the scary person in a line up
Weapons Focus- Weapon effect
A01
- Main assumption of the cognitive approach= people have limited capacity for processing information- a problem for EWT as its impossible for a person to take in and process all information from the environment; we have a filter system which focuses our attention
- normally people can choose relevant info to process, but in the presence of a weapon or other threat, attention tends to focus upon weapons= a more obvious threat which causes lack of attention else where in the event eg the person holding it
- Weapon focus= the tendency for witnesses to violent crimes to focus on the weapon
- Often causes poor quality EWT, meaning we are unable to recall other aspects of incident as our attention wasn’t focused on it
Weapons Focus- Weapon effect
A03- Supporting research
Taylor (1982)- claims when witnesses concentrates on a weapon in a scene= no attention is available for seeing other things in the scene, if there is some focus it is recalled at reduced ability
Loftus et al (1987)- showed ppts 1 of 2 films, in one a customer in a restaurant was holding a cheque, in the other he was holding a gun. It was found that ppts held a higher recall for the cheque condition
Weapons Focus- Attention
A01
- Another explanation fo effect of weapon focus on the accuracy of EW recall is attention
- Suggested seeing a weapon is generally unusual in meany cultures, when present in a crime the weapon now become the focus of attention at the expense of peripheral information
- Diminishes the capacity of witness to encode other information such as the criminals face
Weapons Focus- Attention
A03- Supporting Research
Erickson et al (2014)- questioned whether weapon focus works because of attentional cues are narrowed to the weapon due to an increase in arousal (stress) or because weapons are novel objects, that take more attention than appropriate objects
-Central info is thought to be resilient, peripheral prone to disortation, suggesting witnesses will be very accurate when recalling important details eg weapons, and forget less important ones
Weapons Focus- Attention
A01
- Witnessing a weapon could increase arousal past optimum as it is an obvious threat= YERKES DODSON’S LAW
- Decreasing memory performance as fight/flight response kicks in, maintaining focus only upon weapon
- Less accurate information recalled about other details of the incident
