Factors Effecting EWT Flashcards
What are the two MP of factors effecting EWT?
-misleading information
-anxiety
What is under Misleading information?
-leading questions
-post-event discussion
Explain what is a leading question and how does it affect a EWT?
-a question which wrongly implies something about a event
-information which is implied by the question could contaminate the witnesses memory and they could recall inaccurate information.
Which psychologists investigated leading questions?
LOFTUS AND PALMER
What was L+P aim and what was there method and sample?
-investigate if phrasing of a question could effect a participants memory of a event
-LAB EXPERIMENT
-45 AMERICAN STUDENTS
5 groups of 9
Explain what L+P did and what they found.
-all ppt were shown a video of a car crash
-then groups were asked a leading question with a different verb
-found that estimated speed of cars that smashed was 40.8
MPH,contacted 31.8MPH
What is post event discussion?
-witnesses of an event discuss there accounts with each other
What are the 2 ways it can effect EWT?
-memory contamination
-memory conformity
Explain memory contamination?
-witnesses memory is altered and distorted
-they combine information from other witnesses with there own
-this causes there memory of the event to change.
Explain memory conformity?
-witnesses go along with each other for either social apporoval(NSI)
-or because the others are right and they are wrong (ISI)
-however memory remains unchanged but the accuracy of recall is affected.
What are the evaluation for leading questions?
-practical application
-lacks mundane realism
Explain practical application.
-the principle of the theory had led to an improvement in the criminal justice system and development in cognitive interviews
-cognitive interview avoid the use of leading questions and use a variety of techniques
-e.g open questions, which would trigger as many details of the event as possible
-therefore is important for applied psychology
-because it can lead to more accurate testimonies and improve the lives of people who face crime
Explain lack mundane realism.
-artificial task of watching a video of a car crash
-difficult to generalise the findings to real life as foster et al
-found that participants of a real life event understand the negative consequence of inaccurate information
-ppt watching the video wouldn’t have the same motivation
-lower external validity
What are the evaluations for post event discussion?
-Skwagerberg and Wright
-lack ecological validity
Explain lacks ecological validity.
-done in a controlled environment
-and used a unrealistic task of watching clips of a crime
-difficult to generalise findings and in real life situations post event discussion may not effect EWT as there are importance consequences to reporting inaccurate information
-lower EV
Explain Skwagerberg and Wright.
-showed ppt two versions of a clip of a mugger
-one where there hair was dark brown and one where it was light brown
-asked to discuss in pairs each of them seeing diff ver
-found that they would report back a blend of info suggesting it was medium brown hair
-BECAUSE memory contamination occured during post event discussion as it was distorted
What is Anxiety?
A strong emotional or physical state which can effect EWT.
How do it effect EWT?
-Negative effect on EWT
-witness focuses on certain aspects of the event
-limiting there recall
Who conducted research to investigate Anxiety?
Johnson and Scott
Explain Johnson and Scott did.
-lab experiment
-2 conditions high anxiety (weapon focus) and low anxiety group.
-asked to wait outside a room before experiment starts
-HIGH,heard someone arguing and glass breaking a man walked out with a bloody knife
-LOW,heard someone arguing and a man walked out with grease on his hand and pen
-then asked to identify the man from 50 photos
What did Johnson and Scott find?
Those who correctly identified the man
LOW-33%
HIGH-49%
What are the evaluations?
-Valentine and Mesout
-Christianson and Hubbeston
-Yerkson and Dodson law
Explain Valentine and Mesout evaluation
-used a objective measure (heart rate) to divide ppt into high and low anxiety groups
-ppt took part in the london dungeon labrynth
-asked to immediately recall physical details of the actors from the event
-Found that high anxiety lowered the accuracy of recall
-THEREFORE suggests that high levels of anxiety have negative effects on EWT of a stressful event
Explain Chritianson and Hubbiston Evaluation
-Interviewed 58 real witness of a real life burglary
-where some were directly threatened by the burglar (bank teller-high anxiety)
-and some were bystanders(customers-low anxiety)
-Found that there was more than 75% of accuracy across all witnesses
-but those directly threatened had a more accurate account
-CONTRADICTS able to focus on key aspects of the event.
Explain the YERKSON-DODSON LAW evaluation
-proposes that anxiety and accuracy of EWT dont have a simple relationship
-Different levels of EWT can effect the accuracy of EWT
-too little/too much anxiety can lead to poor accuracy of EWT
-However optimum level of anxiety can lead to higher accuracy of EWT
-this explains the differance between Johnson and scott ppt and Christianson and Hobbiton ppt
C+H optimum level of anxiety
-J+S,not anxious as it was experiment
-validates that anxiety does effect EWT.
