key question

Question 1

A01

Answer 1

eyewitness testemony is evidence supplied by and individual who witnessed a come this may be details of the crime scene, the appearance of the criminal, sequence of events

eyewitness testimony is a key issue in society as we are aware that out memories are not like cameras and can’t always recall precise and accurate detils- Burton et al found eye witness testonomys are only reliable 70% of the time
therefore when they aren’t reliable, this can lead to misconvivtions of innocent individuals leaving criminals a threat to society
for example Ronald cotton who was wrongly convicted by Jenifer Thompson for rape for 11 years.

the Devlin committee said that in 350 cases, 74% individuals were convicted purely due to EWT evidence

and the innocent project 2012 overturned over 70% of misidentifications by DNA testing

Question 2

A02

Answer 2

reconstructive memory provides evidence that demonstrates how our memory isn’t always a reliable source of evidence. it suggests our schemas which are based on: past experiences, beliefs, stereotypes and knowledge can inerter with our memories e.g.

• confabulation, this may occur if we have missing gaps in our memory, our schema fills in gaps, causing variances from what actually occurred
• rationalisation may include ignoring info that doesn’t fit in with out schema or changing events to fit in with out schema e.g. Bartlett- hunting seahorse to fishing
• simplification, when can remember the list but may forget key information

-MSM and the WMM may be able to explain how we have missing gaps in our memory that may be filled in by schemas with incorrect info - MSM suggests or memories to go from STM to LTM requires elaborate rehearsal, during stressful times elaborate rehearsal is unlikely to occur leaving gaps in memory
WMM dual task paradigm cant use same store at same time, selective attention therefore cant process lots of info at once leaving some info inhibited and forgotten

Question 3

A03

Answer 3

duncan- found that when white student ppts were shown an identical clip of either a white person hitting a black person or vice versa and were asked to rate whether they thought it was just a ‘ friendly push’ or ‘ violent’ when white person was hitting black person 13% classed it as ‘ violent’ and when black hitting white 70% classed as ‘ violent’

demonstrating how their preconceived ideas and stereotypes- schemas reconstructed how violent the push was to adhere with their schemas- memory not accurate

weakness: overexadurates the innaciuracy of out memory doesn’t consider flashbulb memories, where we can remember stressful/ emotional events in great detail- brown and kulik found that when ppts were asked 10 questions about major events they could remember, where they were, what they were doing and how they felt emotionally- crimes highly emotional- remembered

Question 4

A02

Answer 4

leading questions- those that suggest a certain answer or revel post event info which leads to people reconstructing this as part of their memory

Question 5

A03

Answer 5

loftus and palmer- smashed’ 40.8 mph - implies a faster speed and ‘ hit’ 34 mph

12% flannely recalled seeing broken glass when they were asked ‘ was there any broken glass’

weakness: lab and artificial not representative of stress and responsibility would feel if it was a real EWT

Question 6

application

Answer 6

Devlin report