M7. FAAEWT: Misleading Information Flashcards
1
Q
EWT
A
- information recalled about a crime by an eyewitness
- accuracy can be reduced through misleading information
- e.g. leading questions; post event discussions
2
Q
Research on effects of LQ’s on EWT
A
- Loftus and Palmer: ‘leading questions can suggest a correct answer’
- P’s watched video of car crash; gave speed estimate based on leading question: “How fast were they going when they [x] into each other?”; each exposed to different critical verb; estimates were:
- ‘smashed’: 8.7mph MORE than those who heard ‘contacted’
3
Q
Response Bias
A
questions influence a participant to give a certain answer
4
Q
Substitution explanation
A
Leading questions can alter eyewitnesses memory of the crime
- e.g. those who had heard “smashed”, reported broken glass at the scene, 2 weeks after the crime (despite there being no broken glass); compared to those who heard contacted
5
Q
Post-Event Discussion
A
- discussions between co-witnesses after a crime has occurred
- recollection influenced by: media, TV reports about crime, participants pre-conceived expectation of how crime would occur
- Gabbert et al. : matched pairs; P’s shown clip of same scene, but different details; engaged in PED; individually completed recall test; 71% inaccuracy rate compared to control group (0%) who worked alone
- MEMORY CONFORMITY: more likely to adopt incorrect ideas/details as we feel we are wrong (ISI)
6
Q
- Eval: Demand Charcteristics
A
- reduce reliability of findings
- P’s want to be as helpful and attentive as possible
- through mechanism of ‘social desirability’ and ‘Please-U’ effect
- when in doubt over correctness, they will give answer that would be expected/most beneficial to researcher
- true results distorted; affects repeatability
7
Q
- Eval: Low Ecological Validity
A
- artificial tasks and stimuli
- film clips of car crashes don’t reflect anxiety of real-life car crash
- true findings will be distorted
