Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony: misleading information, including leading questions and post-event discussion

Question 1

In leading questions, what is a response-bias explanation?

Answer 1

wording of a question has no enduring effect on an eyewitness’s memory of an event but influences the kind of answer given

Question 2

In leading questions, what is a substitution explanation?

Answer 2

wording of a question does affect eyewitness memory; it interferes with its original memory, distorting its accuracy

Question 3

what was the procedure in loftus and palmer 1974 leading questions

Answer 3

• 45 ppts( students) watched film clips of car accidents and answered questions about speed. Critical Q ‘about how fast were the cars going when they hit eachother
• 5 groups of ppts each given a different verb in the critical question: hit, contacted, bump, collided or smashed

Question 4

what was the findings and conclusions in loftus and palmer 1974 leading questions

Answer 4

the verb ‘contacted’ produced a mean estimated speed of 31.8 mph
verb ‘smashed’ the mean was 40.5 mph
the leading question (verb) biased eyewitness recall of an event. the verb ‘smashed’ suggested a faster speed of the car than ‘contacted’

Question 5

In post event discussion what is memory contamination

Answer 5

when co-witnesses discuss a crime, they mix mis(information) from other witnesses with their own memories

Question 6

in ped what is memory conformity

Answer 6

witnesses go along with each other to win social approval or bc they believe the other witnesses are right

Question 7

Name the procedure in Gabbert et al post event discussion

Answer 7

• paired ppts watched a video of the same crime, but filmed so each ppt could see elements in the event that the other could not
• both ppts discussed what they have seen on the video before individually completing a test of recall

Question 8

What was the findings and conclusions in Gabbert et als study PED

Answer 8

-71% of ppts mistakenly recalled aspects of the event that they did not see in the video but had picked it up in the ped
in a control group, where there was no discussion, there were no errors

Question 9

Name 1 strength

EWT

Answer 9

misleading information has real life applications

Question 10

Name 3 limitations

Answer 10

• individual difference in accuracy of EWT(age)
• artificial materials (yuille and cutshall with trauma)
• lab studies of EWT suffer from demand characteristics (lie about answer which challenges validity)