factors influencing eye witness testimony: reliability Flashcards

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1
Q

define eye witness testimony (ewt)

A

an account of an event or crime that was seen by an observer ‘first hand’. Although useful to the police, they can be unreliable.

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2
Q

how does reconstructive memory affect how we retain information ?

A
  • human memory is reconstructive
  • memory does not record events in exact detail
  • instead, it fits memories within pre-existing frameworks of expectations and past knowledge (schema)
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3
Q

how does reconstructive memory affect EWT and what did Bartlett call this ?

A

a person’s ability to recall a crime may be based more on their schema of the event than on what actually occurred - Bartlett called this ‘effort after meaning’

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4
Q

what is a leading question ?

A

a form of post-event information that triggers schemas

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5
Q

what does a leading question do ?

A

it suggests a particular answer because of the way it is phrased and may point an eye witness towards a specific answer

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6
Q

what is the potential result of asking an eye witness a leading question ?

A

the witness may incorrectly access the information provided in the first question, rather than what they actually remember

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7
Q

what is the influence of anxiety of EWT ?

A

witnessing a dramatic event creates stress and anxiety which may affect the person’s ability to register and recall the event

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8
Q

what did Deffenbacher (1983) do ?

A

they reviewed 21 studies

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9
Q

what did deffenbacher (1983) find ?

A
  • moderate anxiety helps memory (like an athlete produces their best performance when they are ‘pumped up’ before a crowd)
  • if an eye witness’ anxiety continues to rise (and becomes extreme), this creates a decline in recall.
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10
Q

what can weapon focus do ?

A

weapon focus is one way that anxiety is pushed ‘over the edge’

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11
Q

what is the potential effect of weapon focus ?

A
  • in violent crimes when the perpetrator is carrying a weapon, the brain’s natural tendency is to zoom in on that as the main source of stress
  • so an eye-witness’ recall is relatively poor and other important details are not noticed or are distorted
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12
Q

what is weapon focus explained by ?

A

tunnel theory

  • presence of a weapon leads to selective attention
  • this excludes or ignores competing bits of information
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13
Q

what is the strength of leading questions (supporting evidence) ?

A

Loftus and Palmer (1974)

  • ppts who heard ‘smashed’ gave higher estimates.
  • those hearing ‘smashed’ in the follow-up study were more likely to claim that they saw broken glass
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14
Q

what does Loftus and Palmer (1974) suggest ?

A

post-event information in the form of leading questions has a significant effect on recall

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15
Q

what is a weakness of leading questions and weapon focus ?

A

evidence from real-life crimes is contradictory
- Yuille and Cutshall (1986) assessed recall of 13 witnesses to a real-life shooting who rated themselves as very anxious at the time

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16
Q

what were the findings of Yuille and Cutshall (1986) ?

A
  • about 5 months after the event, the witnesses produced accurate accounts of what happened despite researchers including two leading questions in this second interview
17
Q

what does Yuille and Cutshall (1986) suggest ?

A

suggests that the effects of leading questions and weapon focus may be less pronounced when applied to real-life events

18
Q

what is a strength of weapon focus ?

A

supporting evidence

- Johnson and Scott (1976)

19
Q

what did Johnson and Scott (1976) do ?

A

arranged half their ppts to overhear an argument and see a man with greasy hands carrying a pen (control). the other half saw a man with a blood-stained knife (experimental condition).

20
Q

what were the findings of Johnson and Scott (1976) ?

A

49% of control later correctly identified the man (from 50 photos) compared to 33% in the experimental condition - the ppts were not aware they were being observed and so there was high ecological validity

21
Q

what does Johnson and Scott (1976) suggest ?

A

suggests that ppts’ attention had been drawn towards the weapon and away from other peripheral details like facial features

22
Q

what is the competing argument to Johnson and Scott (1976)

A
  • pickel (1998) founder similar effect when a man pulled out a raw chicken or a Pillsbury Dough Boy to pay a cashier, rather than presenting his wallet.
23
Q

what does pickel (1998) suggest ?

A

suggests that ‘weapon focus’ is related to surprise as much as anxiety

24
Q

what is an application of EWT research ?

A

EWT research has led to the introduction of SOCIAL FRAMEWORK EVIDENCE.

25
Q

what is social framework evidence ?

A

in US courts, psychologists may be called to provide some ‘context’ to juries - often in the form of relevant psychological evidence that demonstrates the unreliability of such testimony

26
Q

what does the application suggest ?

A

this suggests that research which recognises the fallibility if human memory is useful in reducing miscarriages of justice in legal cases