Factors effecting eye witness testimony

Question 1

Misleadng info (bartlett)

Answer 1

• memories are not an accurate snapshot of events and instead are ‘recinstructions’ of events, influenced by our schemas.
• this means leading questions can influence how an event is recalled.

Question 2

Post event discussion/contamination (definition)

Answer 2

When one witness alters the accuracy of recall by another witness.

Question 3

Key study of misleading info (loftus and palmer)

Answer 3

• 1974
• 45 students, shown clip of traffic accidents
• They were asked the critical leading question “how fast were the cars going when they ____ into each other”
• Contacted= 31 mph and smashed= 40 mph.

Question 4

Loftus and plamers follow up study.

Answer 4

• 150 pps shown clip and were asked with the verb ‘hit’ or ‘smashed’ or a control group.
• a week after they were asked “did you see broken glass”
• smashed condition= 2x likley to say yes compared to hit condition.
• shows long lasting changes of memory proving substitution of memory occurs rather than response bias.

Question 5

research on affect of post event discussion (Gabbert et al)

Answer 5

• 2003
• vids of crimes shot in different perspectives were shown to pairs pps. (a differnent percpective for each member of the pair)
• When pps interviewed alone, 71% recalled info that wasnt in their percpective but was discussed as being in their with there pair.
• shows memory conformity.

Question 6

Anxiety definition

Answer 6

Mental state of arousal including feelings of concern and tension accompanied by physiological changes.

• EWT is usually used after viollent crimes where anxiety would be high, meaning loftus and palmers reaearch may lack validity as no anxiety was involved.

Question 7

Anxiety, decreases recall theory

Answer 7

• Reduces recall as criminals face due to the weapon focus effect.
• Weapons are a cause for anxiety, meaning the witness focuses its attention on that.

Question 8

Anxiety, increases recall theory

Answer 8

• improves alertness and awareness of surroundings.

- strong emotions= better memory encoding.

Question 9

Yerks-Dodson law of arousal (inverted U)

Answer 9

-increase in anxiety raises alertness, but too high anxiety leads to stress and distraction.

Question 10

Key reasearch of the effects of anxiety (Johnson and scott)

Answer 10

-1976
-naive pps, placed outside a lab listening to convos.
condition 1= normal convo about equiptment failiure, man with greasy hands and pen
2= Hostile, breaking glass and falling furniture, man walks out with knife with blood.
From 50 photo options:
49% identified man with pen
33% identified man with knife

Question 11

study supporting johnson and scott (Peters)

Answer 11

• 1988
• Nurse doing real injection (weapon) with researcher in the room
• more people could identify researcher thsan the nurse
• this is a field experiment version of J and S giving it greater ecological validity.

Question 12

Evidence against J and S

Answer 12

• Yuille and cutshall.
• interviewed 13 witnesses to shooting 4 months after
• All showed very accurate recall, aslo resisting misleading info.

Question 13

Further evaluative points.

Answer 13

• Real world applications of reasearch, eg. the cognitive interview.
• All lab based studies have a lack of validity due to a lack of consequences. (e.g in the real would you would be under oath in a court room.
• demand characteristics (in leading questions studies)
• Ethical issues of J and S (protection from harm, informed consent).