Factors affecting eyewitness testimony: misleading information

Question 1

Eyewitness testimony (EWT)
definition

Answer 1

the ability of people to remember details of events (e.g. accidents and crimes) that they themselves have observed

Question 2

Eyewitness testimony (EWT)
factors that can affect its accuracy

Answer 2

misleading information
leading questions
anxiety

Question 3

Misleading information

Definition

Answer 3

-incorrect information given to the eyewitness usually after the event
└e.g. leading questions and post event discussion between co-witnesses or other people

Question 4

Leading question

Definition

Answer 4

a question which suggests a certain answer because of the way it is phrased

Question 5

Factors affecting eyewitness testimony: misleading information study
Person

Answer 5

Loftus and Palmer (1974)

Question 6

Factors affecting eyewitness testimony: misleading information study

Answer 6

Procedure
└made students watch film clips of car accidents and gave them questions about the accident
└in the critical question (leading question) participants were asked to describe how far the car was going “how fast were the cars going when they hit each other”
└leading question as hit suggests how fast the car was going
└5 groups of participants
└each given a different critical verb in the critical question
└hit, contacted, bumped, collided and smashed
Findings
└mean estimated speed was calculated for each group
└contacted: 31.8mph
└smashed: 40.8mph

Question 7

Why do leading questions affect EWT?

List

Answer 7

• Response-bias explanation

- Substitution explanation

Question 8

Response-bias explanation

Answer 8

leading questions does not affect memory, just choice of answer

Question 9

Substitution explanation

Answer 9

question wording actually distorts memory

Question 10

Substitution explanation study

Person

Answer 10

Loftus and Palmer (1974)

Question 11

Substitution explanation study

Answer 11

└Loftus and Palmer (1974)
└2nd experiment to support this explanation
└wording of the question changes participants memories
└participants who heard smashed more likely to report seeing glass when there was none that those who heard hit

Question 12

Post event discussion

Definition

Answer 12

-discussion between co-witnesses or other people about what they saw
└may influence accuracy of each witnesses recall of the event
└via memory contamination and memory conformity

Question 13

memory contamination

definition

Answer 13

└ co-witnesses mix (mis)information

Question 14

memory conformity

definition

Answer 14

└ witnesses go along with others for social approval

Question 15

Post event discussion study

Person

Answer 15

Gabbert et al (2003)

Question 16

Post event discussion study

Procedure and findings

Answer 16

Procedure
└studied participants in pairs
└each participant watched the video of the same crime but filmed from different points of view
└each could see different elements the other couldn’t e.g. a title of the book carried by a woman
└both participants discussed what they had seen before individually completing a recall test
└control group had no discussion after
Findings
└71% of participants mistakenly recalled aspects of the event they didn’t see in the video but picked up in discussion
└0% of control group did this
└concluded witnesses often go along with each other for social approval or believe others are right and they are wrong
└memory conformity

Question 17

Factors affecting eyewitness testimony: misleading information
Strengths

Answer 17

Real life applications
└Loftus (1975)
└police officers need to be careful about how they phrase their questions when interviewing eyewitnesses
└improving the way legal systems work

Question 18

Factors affecting eyewitness testimony: misleading information
Limitations
Summary

Answer 18

• Artificial tasks: Loftus and Palmer (1974)
• Individual differences: Anastasi and Rhodes (2006)
• Demand characteristics: Zaragosa and McCloskey (1989)
• Consequences of EWT: Foster et al (1994)

Question 19

Factors affecting eyewitness testimony: misleading information
Limitations
Artificial tasks

Answer 19

└Loftus and Palmer (1974)
└used film clips of car accidents- lacks stress of real accident
└emotions can influence memory
└tells us little about how leading questions effect EWT in real accidents or crimes

Question 20

Factors affecting eyewitness testimony: misleading information
Limitations
Individual differences

Answer 20

└older people less accurate than younger people at giving EWTs
└Anastasi and Rhodes (2006)
└people 18-25 and 35-45 more accurate than 55-78
└but all age groups more accurate when identifying people of own age group
└(own age bias)

Question 21

Factors affecting eyewitness testimony: misleading information
Limitations
Consequences of EWT

Answer 21

└Foster et al (1994)
└what you remember as an eyewitness can have important consequences in real world
└not true in research studies