L2 - Eyewitness Memory

Question 1

Describe Atkinson and Shiffrin’s Multi-store memory model.

Answer 1

• Information from the environment is held in sensory memory, but this process is limited/mediated by attentional systems.
• Environmental information that is attended to will enter short term memory, as can retrieved information from long term memory.
• Information in short term memory can be transferred to long term memory via rehearsal.

Question 2

How many features of faces are typically remembered?

Answer 2

4

Question 3

What are the two types of variables that Wells (1978) created?

Answer 3

• System variables

- Estimator variables

Question 4

What are system variables?

Answer 4

Variables affecting eyewitness testimony that are under direct control of the criminal justice system. (interview technique, interviewer gender, identification procedure, etc)

Question 5

What are estimator variables?

Answer 5

Variables affecting eyewitness testimony which are outside the control of the criminal justice system. (e.g. age of witness, characteristics of witness, perpetrator characteristics such as race and gender, eyewitness conditions.)

Question 6

What is change blindness?

Answer 6

The failure to notice changes that occur when continuously monitoring a visual scene.

Question 7

What is the weapon focus effect?

Answer 7

The presence of a weapon is detrimental to participants’ memory of an event.

Question 8

What are the two explanations of the weapon focus effect?

Answer 8

• Weapon elicits fear. Individual then sources out location of the weapon/reason for fear response, reducing the time spent looking at the perp’s face/identifying features.
• any unexpected object can distract witness. Something as non-threatening as a rubber chicken would reduce memory of a perp just as much according to this theory.

Question 9

What are some of the main factors influencing the effect of weapon focus, presented by Fawcett et al., (2013)?

Answer 9

• retention interval (amount of time between crime and ID test - less likely to see WFE with longer intervals)
• exposure duration (longer exposure, smaller effect)

Question 10

What is the Yerkes-Dodson law?

Answer 10

The relationship between arousal and performance such that there is an optimal level of arousal for performance. At both high and low levels of arousal, however, performance is affected detrimentally.

Question 11

How did Christianson (1992) argue against the Yerkes-Dodson law?

Answer 11

Said that performance is not all about arousal. It is also about emotion. Those experiences which are more emotional will be spoken about and shared more, meaning rehearsal of the memory occurs more.

Also suggested that stress may improve memory for central elements in a scene, but worsen memory for peripheral elements.

Question 12

How does alcohol intoxication affect the encoding of memories? Who’s studied this?

Answer 12

Attention and memory consolidation are negatively affected, leading to fewer details remembered by intoxicated individuals compared to sober individuals. The accuracy of details remembered in police reports is unaffected.
(Flowe et al., 2016; Schrieber Compo et al., 2012)

Question 13

What did Ebbersen and Rienick (1998) find about retention interval and memory?

Answer 13

The number of correct event facts decayed, but the percentage of recalled incorrect facts remained constant. So, if less was recalled overall, it is the correct facts that are being affected - not the incorrect ones.

Question 14

What is the misinformation effect?

Answer 14

People tend to distort their memories of an event when exposed to misleading information after the event.

Question 15

What is the mugshot bias?

Answer 15

Viewing mugshots can detrimentally affect later identifications. Mugs are shown when they have no suspects. Mugs of known offenders are then shown to try and develop leads.

Question 16

Why does the mugshot bias occur?

Answer 16

Original memory for perp is interfered with due to other images of faces in mind (mugs)

Question 17

What are the implications of mugshot biases?

Answer 17

Later lineups could involve false positive identification of individuals shown in mugshots.

Question 18

What is verbal overshadowing effect?

Answer 18

Giving a verbal description of perpetrator to police can interrupt visual representation of culprit and therefore lineup identification accuracy.

Question 19

How long-lasting is the verbal overshadowing effect?

Answer 19

Not very. It is short lived. Interference decreases over time, meaning original memory trace is better recalled/accessed.

Question 20

What did Kovera et al., (1997) find about composite drawings?

Answer 20

Likeness of composite drawings produced from participants’ memories is poor. (early composites focussed on features, rather than proportions, etc)

Question 21

What did Wells et al., (2006) find about composite drawings?

Answer 21

Active exposure to composites can negatively affect later identification performance.

Question 22

State how confidence and accuracy of identification are linked.

Answer 22

Confidence is predictive of accuracy.

Question 23

What did Wells & Bradfield (1998) find about confidence malleability?

Answer 23

Providing feedback on accuracy of identification can affect confidence. Confidence statement should reflect match between memory and lineup, rather than a product of social factors and inklings of case evidence, etc.

Question 24

What did Wright and Skakerberg (2007) find about real effects of confidence malleability?

Answer 24

The effect has been demonstrated among actual eyewitnesses

Question 25

What were features of Geiselman et al’s (1985) cognitive interview?

Answer 25

• event-interview similarity
• focussed retrieval
• extensive retrieval
• witness compatible questioning.

Question 26

What are the stages of Geiselman et al’s (1985) cognitive interview?

Answer 26

• Introduction, build rapport.
• Planning phase –> Free recall, uninterrupted. interviewer chooses certain aspects of recall to delve into afterwards.
• Information gathering. Guide witness through information rich representations of the event. e.g. closing eyes - distractions are eliminated.
• Review witnesses recollections to make sure that you have heard what the witness wanted to/was meaning to tell you

Question 27

What are the comparisons between cognitive interviews and standard police interviews?

Answer 27

25%-45% more information is elicited. BUT increase in error of information.

Question 28

What is verbal overshadowing?

Answer 28

Providing a verbal description of another person’s face can significantly impair ability to recognise that face in a subsequent face identification task.

Question 29

What is the verbal facilitation effect?

Answer 29

Increased identification performance when multiple perpetrators are verbally described. Helps you separate the different individuals involved.

Question 30

What did Meissner and Brigham (2008) find about the relationship between descriptive accuracy and ID accuracy?

Answer 30

Visual memory may not be as good as verbal memory/vice versa.

Very small correlation between ID accuracy and description accuracy.

Small correlation between ID accuracy and incorrect details

Effects smaller for event memory studies

Question 31

What did Yuille and Cutshall (1986) study and what did they find?

Answer 31

Researcher pretended to go and rob a store/café. And got shot.
Witnesses performed much better than lab PPS.
Those closer to the event reported more trauma/stress, but remembered more details.
Memory for details of the event did not decay across the various intervals

Question 32

Name 3 types of identification procedures

Answer 32

• showup (one person showed to witness)
• simultaneous lineup
• sequential lineup (video of one suspect at a time)

Question 33

Name 2 modalities of identification procedures

Answer 33

• Live

- Photographic

Question 34

Name 2 compositions of identification procedures.

Answer 34

• target present vs target absent

- single vs multiple subject

Question 35

What did Lindsay and Wells (1985) investigate in relation to eyewitness identification decision processes?

Answer 35

Relative vs absolute judgement theory

–> relative decision making leads to more errors.

Question 36

What is dual process theory in relation to eyewitness identification decision processes?

Answer 36

Gronlund (2005):

• Simultaneous IDs based on familiarity (relatively the most familiar)
• Sequential IDs based on recollection (remembering something specific about a face)

Question 37

What is the diagnostic feature detection model in relation to eyewitness identification decision processes?

Answer 37

Wixted & Mickes, (2014):

The type of lineup procedure used brings more focus on certain features

Question 38

What does admonishment refer to?

Answer 38

The warning to witnesses that the perpetrator may not be present in the lineup.

Question 39

What does APLS stand for?

Answer 39

American Psychology-Law Society

Question 40

What are APLS recommendations on how to conduct lineup procedures?

Answer 40

• Admonishment (warning to witnesses that perp may not be present)
• Double blind testing (investigator can’t give cues/bias PPS choices)
• Assess and record confidence at time of ID (confidence is malleable. Knowing that someone has been arrested may inflate confidence)

Question 41

What did Clark (2006) find about the consequences of APLS recommendations?

Answer 41

Decrease in innocent subject identifications, but also a decrease in guilty subject identifications.

Question 42

Are simultaneous or sequential lineups more accurate?

Answer 42

Sequential lineup decreases false identifications because it makes witnesses more cautious to identify a suspect - the lineup will terminate at this point and none of the other suspects will be seen.

Sequential lineup makes it harder to identify features of the face, as comparisons are helpful for feature-recognition.