Forgetting and Eyewitness Testimony

Question 1

why does unintentional forgetting happen?

Answer 1

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

Question 2

what is cue-dependent forgetting?

Answer 2

the probability of retrieving information increases with the overlap between information present at retrieval and the information stored in memory

Question 3

evidence for encoding specificity …

Answer 3

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

Question 4

what is consolidation?

Answer 4

a process lasting several hours that fixes information into the long term memory

it occurs in the hippocampus

Question 5

evidence for the consolidation hypothesis

Answer 5

is retrograde amnesia, the memory is worse for events that happened just prior to amnesia then memories formed long ago

Question 6

what is the interference theory?

Answer 6

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)

Question 7

what is proactive interference?

Answer 7

there are two types of proactive interference

either the correct response is weak or the incorrect response is strong

Question 8

when is retroactive interference most pronounced?

Answer 8

when new learning resembles old learning

Question 9

what is motivated forgetting?

Answer 9

can occur consciously or unconsciously

it is the deliberate attempt to forget information

Question 10

repression is a type of motivated forgetting that …

Answer 10

stops traumatic memories from gaining consciousness

Question 11

what is directed forgetting?

Answer 11

impaired retrieval when an instruction is given to forget some material

Question 12

what is the item method of forgetting ?

Answer 12

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

Question 13

what is the list method of directed forgetting?

Answer 13

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

Question 14

what are memories based on?

Answer 14

what we perceive, what our expectation are, our belief and current knowledge

Question 15

what is confirmation bias?

Answer 15

when an events memory is distorted by the observers expectations

Question 16

evidence for confirmation bias…

Answer 16

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

Question 17

why does the confirmation bias occur?

Answer 17

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

Question 18

what event factors can affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimony?

Answer 18

• if the ID is cross-race
• the duration of the event
• the lighting conditions
• the number of perpetrators
• presence of a weapon

Question 19

Evidence for the weapon focus effect …

Answer 19

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

Question 20

what effect does anxiety have on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony?

Answer 20

details of the crime scene, the culprit and their actions were recalled more accurately when anxiety was low (64%)

Question 21

what impact does ages have on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony?

Answer 21

• 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

Question 22

the impact on race on eyewitness testimony

Answer 22

• 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%)

Question 23

what are the explanations for cross race effect?

Answer 23

1) expertise, the factor of familiarity

2) social cognitive hypothesis, in-group versus out-group

Question 24

evidence for the expertise explanation of the cross-race effect …

Answer 24

eyewitnesses that have a greater experience with another race show reduced cross-race effect

Question 25

evidence for social cognitive in-group explanation (cross-race effect)…

Answer 25

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

Question 26

what is the impact of post-event information when there is retroactive interference?

Answer 26

Information presented after the event can easily distort eyewitness memories

information most subject to distortion is the information questioned about the incident

Question 27

evidence for the effect of post-event information

Answer 27

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

Question 28

how does misleading information distort memory?

Answer 28

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

Question 29

how does information present before the event impact the witnesses accuracy?

Answer 29

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

Question 30

how to improve eyewitness memory …

Answer 30

use sequential line ups are they reduce misidentification

use a cognitive interview