factors affecting Eye witness testimony

Question 1

Loftus and palmer research ?

Answer 1

1. MISLEADING INFORMATION
   AO1: Loftus and Palmer

• Aim: investigate whether phrasing of a Q can affect ppts’ memory of an event.
• Method: Lab experiment
• Sample: 45 American students (split into 5 groups of 9)
  Procedure:
• Ppts shown video of a car crash and each group was asked one of 5 critical questions: (IV)
  “About how fast were the cars travelling when they **** each other?”
  Smashed, hit, collided, bumped or contacted.
• Loftus and Palmer measured participants’ speed estimates (DV)
  Findings:
• found participants guessed higher mean speed when they had ‘smashed’ (40.8mph) compared to contacted (31.8mph).
• Conclusion: The phrasing of a question can influence a participant’s memory of an event.

Question 2

AO3 leading q -misleading info EWT (practical app) ?

Answer 2

prac app;

• notion that leading qs can affect the accuracy of EWT led to improvements in the legal system.
• eg, police officers need to be careful about how phrase qs when interviewing witnesses, not use leading questions which led to development of COGNITIVE INTERVIEW.
• Therefore, that research is important applied psychology bc it could lead to more accurate testimonies and improve the lives of people affected by crime.

Question 3

AO3 leading q -misleading info(mundane realism) ?

Answer 3

lacks mundane realism.

• bc artificial task of watching a video of a car crash. - Therefore, difficult to generalise findings to real life cases of how leading questions can affect the accuracy of EWT as vid may have less of emotional impact on the ppt than witnessing a real car crash.

Question 4

post event discussion -what is memory contamination

Answer 4

• when co-witnesses to a crime discuss it w each other their EWT may become altered or distorted
• bc they combine info from other witness w own memroy suggesting memories of the evnt have changed bc of post event discussion

Question 5

memory conformity ?

Answer 5

• witnesses go along w each other either to win social approval (NSI) or bc they believe the other witness is right and they are wrong (ISI)
• however unlike memory contamination,the memory remains unchanged but accuracy of recall has been affected

Question 6

misleading info - post event discussion AO3(mugging)

Answer 6

RTS from skagerberg and wright

• showed ppt two version of a clip of mugging one in which muggar hair was dark brown and in the other it was light brown
• ppt discussed clips in pairs each having seen diff versions
• found often did not report what they heard from co-witness but rather blend of two suggesting muggar had medium brown hair rather than dark or light
• therefore supports PED affecting accuracy bc supports memory contamination during PED happens,distorting EWT rather than conforming to co-witness response

Question 7

misleading info - post event discussion AO3 (demand characteristics)

Answer 7

much of research investigating PED and effect on EWT may be affected with demand characteristics

• conducted in a lab setting (controlled environment) w unrealistic tasks such as watching vid clips of crime
• found ppt usually wanna be helpful + not let researcher down , so they could pick up clues from task + ecpermineter and change responses to fit aim
• eg changing response to match that of their cowitnesses after discussing the clip
• lower internal val investing PED as effects on discussing a crime on accuracy of EWT are not being accurately measured

Question 8

anxiety definition ?

Answer 8

strong emotional and physical state that effects EWT

Question 9

how does anxiety affect EWT

Answer 9

extreme anxiety has been found to negatively impact EWT as witness only focus on certain aspects of event so recall is limited

Question 10

Johnson and Scott research into anxiety AO1

Answer 10

Aim: To investigate the effects of anxiety on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony

Method: Laboratory experiment

Procedure:

• Participants were placed in one of two conditions either a high anxiety, ‘weapon focus’ condition or low anxiety condition. (IV)
• Participants were told to wait outside a room before the experiment began.
• In the high anxiety, ‘weapon focus’ condition participants heard an argument and the sound of breaking glass from within the room, and a man walked out of the room carrying a knife covered with blood.
• The low anxiety condition heard the argument from within the room before a man walked out with grease on their hands and a pen.
• Participants then had to identify the person who left the room from 50 photographs. (DV)

Findings:

Found 49% accuracy for the low anxiety condition compared to 33% in the high anxiety ‘weapon focus’ condition.

Conclusion: Anxiety caused ‘weapon focus’ as the witness concentrates on the weapon not the person because of the fear of the situation, reducing accuracy of recall.

Question 11

AO3 on anxiety (christens and hubinette)

Answer 11

Christianson and Hubinette contradicts Johnson and Scott’s findings.

• interviewed 58 real life witnesses of a bank robbery. Some had been directly threatened (bank teller- high anxiety) and others were bystanders (customers – low anxiety).
• found that those who had been directly threatened had sig better memories than the bystanders.
• Therefore, contradicting idea that anxiety reduces the accuracy of EWT, and demonstrating that anxiety can in fact increase the accuracy of EWT.