Factors Affecting Eyewitness Testimony

Question 1

What are the factors affecting eyewitness testimony?

Answer 1

-misleading information- (leading questions and post event discussions)
-anxiety

Question 2

what is eye witness testimony?

Answer 2

Account given by an individual who was present ent when a crime took place

Question 3

What are leading questions?

Answer 3

When the question given to the witness gives implications of what answer is desired

Question 4

What was the aim of Loftus and Palmer (1974)?

Answer 4

To investigate the effect of leading questions in distorting the accuracy of EWT.

Question 5

What was the procedure of Loftus and Palmer?

Answer 5

-They carried out a laboratory experiment using independent groups design.
-45 American students were shown seven films of different car accidents. After each film the participants were given a questionnaire asking them to describe the accident, they were also asked a series of specific questions including one critical question.
‘About how fast were the cars going when they
each other?’
• The participants were divided into five groups and each group was asked the critical question with one of the following five verbs! hit, smashed, collidea, bumped, contacted
The IV =Which verb was used the DV = Speed Reported by the Participants in
MPH
(independent groups)

Question 6

What are schemas?

Answer 6

Building blocks of information in your memory based on your experience (why many people who see event and recall it differently)

Question 7

what were the findings of Loftus and Palmer?

Answer 7

Smashed 40.8
Collided 39.3
Bumped 38.1
Hit 34.0
Contacted 31.8
Findings:
• The estimated speed was affected by the verb used.
• The group given the word ‘smashed’ estimated the highest speed (40.8 mph) and the group given the word
‘contacted’ estimated the lowest speed (31.8 mph).

Question 8

What was the conclusion of Loftus and Palmer?

Answer 8

•questions asked can be termed=Leading because they have affected the participant’s memory for the event.
• Can concluded that language can have a distorting effect on EWT-can lead to inaccurate accounts of t witnessed event.
• possible that the original memory has been reconstructed,
-but this is impossible to conclude with confidence as the original memory may have been replaced or experienced interference.
-This has important implications for the questions used in police interviews of eyewitnesses.
(participants memories could’ve been changed)

Question 9

What do leading questions do?

Answer 9

-Influenece a witness to change their account
-Can actually cause a witness to change their recollection (they think they remember it)

Question 10

What is post event discussion?

Answer 10

-info discussed after event has happened- can influence a person’s memory of it
-can include discussions with other witnesses, news, reports or chat with friends/family
-Snippets of both peoples memory amalgamates into each others
(can lead to NSI/ISI)

Question 11

What does post event discussion do to eyewitness testimonies?

Answer 11

-become contaminated
-combine misinformation from other witnesses with their own memories (memory conformity-the witnesses go along with others accounts for social approval because they think they are right)

Question 12

what was the aim of gabbert et al’s experiment?

Answer 12

Investigate the effects of post event information in distorting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony

Question 13

what was the procedure of gabbert et al’s experiment? (2003)

Answer 13

-Lab experiment
-Experimental group-paired participants watched a video of the same stimulated robbery from different angles so that the participant could see elements in the event the other could not
-Both part has been discussed what they had seen on the video (post event-discussion before individually, completing a test of recall
-Control group-participants watch the simulated robbery but did not take part in a post event discussion

Question 14

What was the dependent variable of gabbert et al’s experiment?

Answer 14

number of incorrect items recalled by the participants as a result of the post event discussion

Question 15

what were the findings of Gabbert et al’s experiment?

Answer 15

-71% of the participants in the experimental group mistakenly recorded aspects of the event that they did not see in the video I picked up in the post event discussion
-0% of the control group made errors

Question 16

what was the conclusion for Gabbert et al’s experiment?

Answer 16

-he concluded, the witnesses, often go along with each other, either to win social approval or because they believe the witnesses are right, and they are wrong (NSI, ISI)
-This finding also has implications for both applied forensic psychology, such as ensuring that the police gather information from witnesses immediately after crime has been witnessed to avoid post event discussions from distorting eye witness memory