Factors Affecting EWT - Misleading Information

Question 1

What is eyewitness testimony?

Answer 1

Eyewitness testimony is the ability of people to remember the details of events, such as accidents and crimes, which they themselves have observed.

Question 2

What factors can affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimony?

Answer 2

misleading information (leading questions and post event discussion)
anxiety

Question 3

What is misleading information?

Answer 3

This is where incorrect information is given to the eyewitness usually after the event
It can take many forms including leading questions and postevent discussion between witnesses.

Question 4

What is a leading question?

Answer 4

A leading question is a question which, because of the way it is phrased, suggests a certain answer.

Question 5

What study investigated whether misleading information distorts the accuracy of an eyewitnesses immediate recall?

Answer 5

Loftus and Palmer

Question 6

Describe Loftus and Palmer’s study into whether misleading information distorts the accuracy of an eyewitnesses immediate recall

Answer 6

45 American students were shown a film of a multiple car crash. They were then asked a series of questions including one ‘critical’ question:

“About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?”.

In different conditions the word ‘hit’ was replaced with the verbs ‘smashed’

This is a leading question as the verb used suggests the speed the car was going.

The results found that participants given the word ‘smashed’ estimated the highest speed.

This shows that misleading information in the form of a leading question biased the eyewitnesses answer to the question.

Question 7

What can the results of the study be explained by?

Answer 7

The ‘response-bias’ explanation

Question 8

What is the ‘response-bias’ explanation?

Answer 8

It suggests that the wording of the question doesn’t actually affect a person’s memory of the event, but instead influences how they decide to answer.

Question 9

What study investigated whether a leading question can actually alter the participants memory of a clip?

Answer 9

Loftus and Palmer

Question 10

Describe Loftus and Palmer’s study to see if a leading question can actually alter a participant’s memory of a clip

Answer 10

three groups and shown a film of a car accident.
One group was given the verb ‘smashed’ second group ‘hit’
third control group was given no indication of the vehicle speed.

A week later they were asked “Did you see any broken glass?

The results showed that participants who originally heard ‘smash’ were more to recall the false memory of the broken glass than the other conditions.

This shows that leading questions can affect the accuracy of people’s memories of an event.
This is known as the substitution explanation.

Question 11

What is post event discussion?

Answer 11

Postevent discussion occurs when conversations take place between witnesses to a crime and this can lead to contamination of their memory for the event. This is because they combine (mis) information from other witnesses with their own memories.

Question 12

What are the two explanations of the impact of post event information on eyewitness testimony?

Answer 12

Conformity effect and source monitoring/confusion

Question 13

What is conformity effect?

Answer 13

This is where eye-witnesses go along with other eye-witness testimonies either for social approval because they believe them to be correct

Question 14

Post event discussion
What study investigated the conformity effect?

Explain

Answer 14

Gabbert et al

showed participants a video of a crime. Participants worked in pairs where each partner watch a different video of the same crime from different perspectives. This meant each viewed elements the other could not see. For example, only one of each pair could see the title of a book being carried by a young woman.

Both participants then discussed what they had seen before completing an individual test of recall.

The results found that 71% of participants mistakenly recalled aspects of the event they did not see in the video but had picked up in the discussion.

The corresponding figure in the control group, where there was no discussion, 0%.

Question 15

Post event discussion

What is the source monitoring/confusion?

Answer 15

This explanation states that after discussing the event with other witnesses, original memories become distorted. This is because witnesses confuse what they actually saw with what they have subsequently heard from other witnesses.

Question 16

Describe the study that researched into source monitoring/confusion

Answer 16

Seema and colleagues attempted to use leading questions to implant a memory of an event that never happened.

They did this by giving their participants a document that claimed to be a personalised food and drink profile.

For one Group, the profile included the false information they had once, under the age of six, drunk so much alcohol they were sick.

The researchers found a significant number of the participants ‘recalled’ being sick before they were 16.

But even more surprisingly, a proportion of these participants also claimed they now dialled certain alcoholic drinks because of this (non existent) experience.

Question 17

Evaluation
Misleading information
S
S
L
L

Answer 17

S: real life application

S: Research support leading questions (Loftus and Palmer)

L: Loftus and Palmer artificial material (so lower external validity)

L: lab studies of EWT suffer from demand characteristics (so low internal validity)

Question 18

Evaluation
Misleading information
S: practical application

Answer 18

understanding of the issues of eyewitness testimony where the consequences of inaccurate EWT can have serious consequences.

Lotus believes that leading questions can have a huge distorting effect on memory and that police officers need to be very careful about how they phrase their questions when interviewing eyewitnesses.

For example, the cognitive interview was developed to increase the accuracy of witnesses’ recall of events during police questioning.

Such research into EWT is one area psychologists believe they can make a important positive difference to the lives of real people.

Question 19

Evaluation
Misleading information
Artificial tasks

Answer 19

A real limitation is that laboratory experiments such as those carried out by Loftus may not represent real life because participants watched film clips of car accidents.

It is quite possible that eyewitnesses remember real events differently from staged. Witnessing a mock car accident is a very different experience from witnessing a real life accident, mainly because such clips lack the stress of a real accident which can impact on accuracy of memory.

This is a limitation as the findings using such artificial tasks may tell us little about how leading questions affect EWT in the real world in terms of accidents and crimes..

Question 20

Evaluation
Misleading information
Lab studies may be affect by demand characteristics

Answer 20

Answers given in laboratory experiments may be affected by demand characteristics. Participants usually do not want to let the researcher down, and want to appear helpful and attentive. So when they are asked a question they don’t know the answer to, they guess and answer in the way that they think the researcher wants the to.

Demand characteristics are a problem for studies of EWT because if the participants don’t behave naturally it affects the validity of the investigation, as they will no longer be studying the accuracy of the testimony but the participant’s ability to work out the aim of the study.

Question 21

Summary

Leading qs:

Post event discussion:

Answer 21

Loftus and Palmer, response bias

Conformity effect: Gabbart
Source monitoring/confusion: Seema