LQ | Factors affecting the accuracy of eye witness testimony

Question 1

Loftus and palmer 1974

Experiment 1

Answer 1

Lab, independent, volunteer

45 participants shown a film of a car crash and were then questioned about it

Asked - how fast were the cars going when they hit each other

There were 5 groups of participants and each group was given a different verb in the critical question - hit, contacted, bumped, collided or smashed

The use of the different verbs suggested speed, meaning participants were asked a leading question

Question 2

Ex 1 conc

Answer 2

Suggests that the leading question biased the eyewitnesses recall of the event; the verb smashed indicated a greater speed than the verb contacted

Question 3

Experiment 2

Answer 3

150 participants shown a 1 minute film of a car driving through the countryside followed by 4 seconds of a multiple traffic accident

Afterwards, students were questioned about the film; there were 3 groups of participants with 50 in each group

1/2nd asked how fast were the cars going when they hit/smashed each other. Final group was a control group who weren’t asked questions

One week later, asked a leading question “did you see broken glass” which there was none

Participants who heard the more violent word to suggest speed were more likely to say they saw the broken glass despite there being none

Question 4

Ex 2 conc

Answer 4

Wording of a leading question changed the participants memory of the film clip; the change in the critical verb altered their memory of the event

Question 5

Response-bias explanation

Answer 5

The wording of a question has no real effect on the participants memories, but it can influence how they decide to answer

As shown in experiment 1, the use of the word smashed encouraged participant to choose a higher speed estimate

Question 6

Substitution explanation

Answer 6

The wording of a question does affect the memory of an eyewitness; it interferes with the original memory, distorting the accuracy

This is shown in experiment 2 when the critical verb altered the participants memories of the incident

Question 7

Limitation of loftus and palmer

Answer 7

It used artificial materials, lowering the ecological validity meaning the findings cannot be generalised to other settings

This is because participants watched film clips of car accidents, which is a very different experience from witnessing a car accident in real life

Films clips lack the emotion associated with witnessing a traumatic event; Yuille and Cutshall (1986) found that witnesses to a traumatic robbert had very accurate recall after 4 months

This means that the results of this study may tell us little about how leading questions can affect EWT in cases of real life crimes or accidents