Forgetting and Eyewitness Testimony Flashcards
why does unintentional forgetting happen?
it can be unintended whereby the act of retrieving some material leads to use forgetting some related information
it can be unintended whereby we lack the cues to retrieve information that is required
it can also be due to consolidation problems
what is cue-dependent forgetting?
the probability of retrieving information increases with the overlap between information present at retrieval and the information stored in memory
evidence for encoding specificity …
Thomson and Tulving presented pairs of words where first word was the cue and the second was the word that had to be remembered
cues either weakly or strongly associated with the word to be remember e.g train-black or white-black
retrieval was tested by giving the cues
what is consolidation?
a process lasting several hours that fixes information into the long term memory
it occurs in the hippocampus
evidence for the consolidation hypothesis
is retrograde amnesia, the memory is worse for events that happened just prior to amnesia then memories formed long ago
what is the interference theory?
the idea that what an individual is currently learning can be disrupted by
previous learning (proactive interference)
or by what they will learn in the future (retroactive interference)
what is proactive interference?
there are two types of proactive interference
either the correct response is weak or the incorrect response is strong
when is retroactive interference most pronounced?
when new learning resembles old learning
what is motivated forgetting?
can occur consciously or unconsciously
it is the deliberate attempt to forget information
repression is a type of motivated forgetting that …
stops traumatic memories from gaining consciousness
what is directed forgetting?
impaired retrieval when an instruction is given to forget some material
what is the item method of forgetting ?
words are presented and then they are given an instruction to either remember or forget the word
participants were then tested fir word recall
recall and recognition was poorer for words they were told to forget
what is the list method of directed forgetting?
first list presented and participants told to either remember or forget the list
then show a second list
recall is typically poorer for words they have been told to forget
what are memories based on?
what we perceive, what our expectation are, our belief and current knowledge
what is confirmation bias?
when an events memory is distorted by the observers expectations
evidence for confirmation bias…
swedish and immigrant students were shown a videotape that simulated a crime where the perpetrator inflicted a knife wound on a cashier
after watching the video tape both groups were shown 4 photos of swedes and 4 photos of immigrants, both groups selected the immigrants over swedes based on evidence that immigrants were overrepresented in crime stats
why does the confirmation bias occur?
memory for the event is influenced y our expectations of the observer
expectations are stored in schemas, which alter the way we reconstruct an events details
what event factors can affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimony?
- if the ID is cross-race
- the duration of the event
- the lighting conditions
- the number of perpetrators
- presence of a weapon
Evidence for the weapon focus effect …
Loftus, Loftus and Messo
the participants watched one of two sequences, either someone pointing a gun at the cashier or someone hading over a cheque
they found that participants memory for details unrelated to the gun/cheque was poorer for the weapon condition
what effect does anxiety have on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony?
details of the crime scene, the culprit and their actions were recalled more accurately when anxiety was low (64%)
what impact does ages have on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony?
- older adults have less accurate memories
- older adults were more likely to produce false memories and be confident about them
- however they were better at identifying culprits that were of a similar age
the impact on race on eyewitness testimony
- same race face are identified better than cross race faces
suspects were more correctly identified when they were of the same race as the eyewitness (60%)
what are the explanations for cross race effect?
1) expertise, the factor of familiarity
2) social cognitive hypothesis, in-group versus out-group
evidence for the expertise explanation of the cross-race effect …
eyewitnesses that have a greater experience with another race show reduced cross-race effect
evidence for social cognitive in-group explanation (cross-race effect)…
used middle class white students, showed them black and white faces in wa deathly context and an impoverish context
they better recognised white faces in a wealthy context
what is the impact of post-event information when there is retroactive interference?
Information presented after the event can easily distort eyewitness memories
information most subject to distortion is the information questioned about the incident
evidence for the effect of post-event information
showed eyewitnesses a film of a multiple car accident and then were asked specific questions
they were asked how fat the car was going when it hit/smashed the other car
one week later they were asked if there was broken glass
significant difference occurred in those who had the word smashed, they had more false distortions
how does misleading information distort memory?
source misattribution - questions activates memories from different sources
vacant slot explanation - misinformation likely to be accepted when its missing from the original event
coexistence explanation - choose to use post-event info due to source misattribution
how does information present before the event impact the witnesses accuracy?
participants the day before were either told a story about a burglary in a palace or a school trip to a palace
the next day they watched a video of a museum burglary.. more errors arose in the thematically similar condition
how to improve eyewitness memory …
use sequential line ups are they reduce misidentification
use a cognitive interview
