Factors affecting the accuracy of Eye-Witness Testimony - Misleading Information Flashcards
What is Loftus and Palmer’s research on leading questions?
45 PPs watched a car accident. In the critical question, participants were asked to describe how fast the cars were travelling. Each was given a different verb, hit, contacted, bumped, collided, smashed.
What were Loftus and Palmer’s findings?
The mean estimated speed was calculated - for the ‘contacted’ group - 31.8, for the ‘smashed’ group, the mean was 40.5 mph.
What is the response-bias explanation?
The wording of the question has no real effect on their memories but influences how they decide to answer.
What is the substitution explanation?
The wording of a question changes the participants memory of the clip - those who had ‘smashed’ reported seeing broken glass when there was none.
What was Gabbert’s research into post-event discussion?
She studied participants in pairs who watched the same crime from different perspectives. Both participants discussed what they had seen before completing a recall test.
What were Gabbert’s findings?
The researchers found that 71% mistakenly recalled aspects they had not seen. The corresponding figure in a control group with no discussion was 0%.
What is memory contamination?
When witnesses discuss a crime, the eyewitness testimonies may become altered or distorted. This is because they combine misinformation from other witnesses with their own memories.
What is memory conformity?
A form of ISI/NSI, they assume they missed something so conform to the group, however the actual memory is unchanged.
What is the evaluation - real-world application?
Has practical uses in the justice system.
Psychologists are sometimes asked to act as expert witnesses in trials and explain the limits of EWT to juries. Officers need to be careful of their phrasing when interviewing eyewitnesses. This shows that this can improve how the legal system works by protecting innocent people from faulty convictions based on unreliable EWT.
What is the evaluation - artificial environment?
Loftus and Palmer’s experiment is a very different experience to watching something happen life. IRL, eyewitnesses testimony is more important, but in research does not matter in the same way. This suggests that researchers such as Loftus are too pessimistic about the effects of misleading information - EWT may be more dependable than studies suggest.
What is the evaluation - evidence against substitution?
Sutherland and Hayne shows PPs a video clip. When asked misleading questions, their recall was more accurate with central themes than with peripheral ones. This is due to attention focus. This is not predicted by the substitution explanation.
What is the evaluation - evidence challenging memory conformity?
Another limitation is evidence that PED alters EWT. In a study they found that details were not changed, but moved on a spectrum between the two perspectives. This suggests that the memory itself is distorted through contamination by misleading PED, rather than memory conformity.
