Factors Influencing EWT

Question 1

What is post-event information?

Answer 1

*often individuals are interviewed after a long period of time which may cause issues because of memory confabulation and the influence of other sources, such as media, other witnesses, lawyers and police

Question 2

what is misinformation effect?

Answer 2

*exposure to misleading post-event information made accuracy of EWT fall below chance levels

Question 3

How can the theory of reconstructive memory affect EWT?

Answer 3

• SOFT of information (shorten, omit, familiarise, transform)
• schemas

Question 4

EAST for post-event information?

Answer 4

E
*There is evidence to support the notion that post event information can impact EWT…
*Loftus and Palmer found that participants were impacted by leading questions (e.g., how fast were the cars going when they hit/smashed into each other?) therefore ewt can be confabulated
CA: Yullie Cutshall showed that memory is consistent (interviewed real participants who witnessed a robbery and even with leading questions, their accounts were still accurate, even months later)
HOWEVER this may be due to rehearsal of information

A
Cognitive interviews

S
+(from evidence) standardised procedures so it’s reliable
+(from evidence) produced quantitative data (e.g., collection of speed estimates from Loftus and Palmer)
-does not take into account individual differences in EWT (e.g., individuals who have not gone past optimum level of stress may not b affected by post-information)
-concepts that support such as schemas are unfalsifiable — they are difficult to test

T

• stress and arousal
• weapon effect

Question 5

How does stress and arousal impact EWT?

Answer 5

*Yerkes Dodson’s law explains how to find the optimum level of positive pressure at which people perform at their best. Too much or too little pressure can lead to decreased performance

Question 6

What are flashbulb memories?

Answer 6

*detailed memories of a dramatic, typically highly emotive event

Question 7

EAST for stress and arousal?

Answer 7

E
*There is evidence to support that stress and arousal can impact EWT…
*Valentine and Mesout: recall was compromised if the individual was overly aroused so inconsistencies in EWT may be due to different optimum stress levels
CA: Yullie and Cutshall: witnesses recalled their memories of the real bank robbery vividly even months after

A
*cognitive interviews: reinstate state cues to allow for recall

S
+individual differences are taken into account (different optimum stress levels)
+supported by field experiments (London Dungeon, V+M)
-difficult to establish cause and effect in measuring the impact (e.g., the usualness of the weapon in the context the eye witness is in could impact eye witness testimony)
-reductionist as it does not take into account cognition and emotional differences

T

• post-event information
• weapon effect

Question 8

How does the weapon effect affect EWT?

Answer 8

• if there is weapon used, people will likely concentrate on the weapon instead of other details of the crime, like face or clothes
• related to stress and arousal
• can be explained through tunnel theory because seeing a weapon leads to selective attention, so other info is ignored

Question 9

EAST for weapon focus?

Answer 9

E
*There is evidence in supporting the inconsistency of EWT due to the impact of the weapon effect…
*e.g. Loftus found that there were more inconsistencies when a gun was shown rather than a cheque book in a slide of a restaurant scene
CA: Yullie and Cutshall: witnesses recalled their memories of the real bank robbery vividly even months after

A
*cognitive interview: reinstatement of cues to aid memory processes

S
+takes into account both nature and nurture (e.g., we are evolved to be frighten things that threaten our survival and we our upbringing determines how comfortable we are with the presence of weapons) so it is intersectionist
+takes into account individua differences because the inconsistency between eye witnesses is dependent on optimum level of arousal
-reductionist: might be the unusualness of the item and not the threat causing inconsistency
-depends on culture; desensitisation to certain weapons or more consistency where weapons play a normal role in crime

T
*post-event information