Factors effecting the accuracy of EWT Flashcards
What is the first factor that effects the accuracy of EWT?
Misleading information - Our memories are not direct copies of events and so only fragments are retained and reconstructions may be skewed depending on the questions given
What did Loftus and Palmer find out about misleading information?
Car accidents experiment
The word smashed averaged a higher speed estimate and were more likely to see broken glass
What did Loftus find issue with on misleading information?
There is an issue with reliability on misleading information
When shown theft of a purse 98% of participants remembered the colour of the purse and when read an incorrect statement only 2 participants changed their answer.
What is the second factor effecting the accuracy of EWT?
Post-event discussion which distorts 58% of EW reporting to have done this
What did Gabbert et al find out about post-event discussion?
Girl stealing
Only 1 of 2 had seen the girl stealing and found that when only 1 out of two had seen the girl stealing that 71% of witnesses in the co-witness group recalled information they had never seen and 60% said the girl was guilty despite never seeing her commit the crime
What is an issue with these findings?
The mundane realism of these findings are unrealistic due to the control nature of the research, since they knew it was only study conformity rates were bound to be higher
What is a positive of these findings?
Research into post-event discussion has many practical applications for people such as the police force
