Forensic (EWT)

Question 1

Devilin report

Answer 1

Many factors have been found to affect the accuracy eyewitness. Before the devlin in 1976 eyewitness testimony was the only evidence police had great emphasis on. According to the deviln report many people were wrongly convicted on the basis of eyewitness testimony.

Question 2

Reconstructed memory

Answer 2

Accurate memory of events can be affected by what we know before an event. And retrieval memories about the event when asked to recall at a later date. Bartlett suggested we store fragments and reconstruct them into a meaningful whole leading to inaccuracies. This was known as a schema. Include war of the ghosts.

Question 3

Carmichael

Answer 3

Illustrated this showing the same picture but different descriptions. There has been much argument over schema and if it affects our perceptions.

Question 4

Loftus and palmer

Answer 4

investigated the reliability of eyewitness testimony using films of car crashes. One was looking at leading questions it showed that eyewitness testimony can be changed by wording of a question. However judging speeds can be difficult so it could have been response bias. Loftus attempted to change memories of a coloured bag. The more difficult task is the more likely leading questions will affect it. It could also have been the artificial environment.

Question 5

Allport and postman

Answer 5

Showed to man arguing on the subway participants invariably remembered the reason being in the hand of the black man when in actual fact it was the white man. This suggests we answer in stereotypical ways. It was also found people sharing a bank robber recalled guns even though it wasn’t any.

Question 6

Problems with schema

Answer 6

The problems with schema it is too vague. It over emphasises the inaccuracies in memories some are accurate. They’re experiments done in artificial environments lack ecological validity as ones in natural environments have emotions and chaos.

Question 7

Emotion

Answer 7

Crimes often frightening to witness this could affect the eyewitness testimony. The Yerkes donsons law says performance increases with arousal but too high and it decreases. A meta analysis on eyewitness testimony and high stress had a negative impact. However it had been found with a bank robbery when threatened had a better recall.

Question 8

Weapon effect

Answer 8

Loftus suggested weapon effect they focus on the weapon not the criminal. However has been found in real life weapon effect doesn’t happen. Man with blood on a knife and a pen.

Question 9

Face recognition

Answer 9

Eyewitnesses are asked identify criminals testing found that we’ll poor at recognising faces are not our own race. found out of 52 only 7 got it right.

Question 10

Attributional biases

Answer 10

Eyewitness tend to commit fundamental attributional error they overestimate internal factors it was found people tend to believe car accidents are caused by driving error rather than bad conditions.

Question 11

Artificial lab studies

Answer 11

In conclusion A major problem with research on eyewitness testimony is these artificial lab studies which lack ecological validity. In addition realistic studies have contradicted the evidence. Since the devilin report people who have been convicted of eyewitness testimony have been later proved innocent. Due to DNA.