Memory Booklet 3: Eye Witness Testimonies

Question 1

Juries and police rely on EWT but research shows EWT aren’t always accurate and can be affected by multiple factors. What two factors are on the spec?

Answer 1

-Misleading information
-Anxiety

Question 2

What is misleading information broken down into?

Answer 2

-Leading questions
-Post Event discussion

Question 3

What is the main study on leading questions?

Answer 3

Loftus and Palmer (2 studies)

Question 4

What was found in Loftus and Palmer’s (FIRST) study?

Answer 4

-45 student participants shown seven short video clips of cars colliding, split into five groups with 9 participants in each one
-All participants asked how fast cars were going when they ..(verb).. each other
-How the question was phrased influenced the participants speed estimates
-Smashed = 40.8 mph, contacted = 31.8 mph

Question 5

What was found in Loftus and Palmer’s (SECOND) study?

Answer 5

-Similarly, participants shown a short film with a multi-vehicular car accident and asked questions about it. Split into 3 groups with 50 in each group
-One group asked how fast cars going when they hit, second group asked how fast cars were going when they smashed, third group not asked
-One week later all participants and returned and asked “did you see any broken glass” (no broken glass in film)
-PARTICIPANTS WHO HAD ORIGINALLY HEARD WORD “SMASHED” MORE LIKELY TO REPORT BROKEN GLASS

Question 6

What is the main study for post-event discussion?

Answer 6

Gabbert

Question 7

What was the method in Gabbert’s study?

Answer 7

Asked pairs of participants to watch a different video of same events so they each viewed unique items. Pairs in one conditions encouraged to discuss the event before each partner individually recalled the event they watched

Question 8

What were the results of Gabbert’s study?

Answer 8

71% of participants who discussed the event went on to mistakenly recall items acquired during the discussion

Question 9

What are the evaluations of misleading information?

Answer 9

😊Evidence to support (Loftus)
😊Research has important practical use (Loftus)
😒Research is artificial (Clips vs real life)
😒Evidence to suggest older people less accurate (Anastasi and Rhodes)
😒Evidence to suggest demand characteristics (Zaragosa and McCloskey)

Question 10

What was Loftus study that supports misleading information as a factor?

Answer 10

-Asked participants to participate in an advertising evaluation program, all visited either disney world or land. Participants in four groups:
Group 1- Read an ad about theme park with no mention of cartoon characters
Group 2- Read same ad but a 4ft tall cardboard cut-out of Bugs Bunny placed in room
Group 3- Read a fake Disneyland advertisement featuring bugs Bunny
Group 4- Both group 2 and 3 combined (ad and cut out)
-AFTER READING THROUGH THE ADVERT, PARTICIPANTS ASKED WHETHER THEY MET BUGS WHILE ON A VISIT TO THE PARK AND WHETHER THEY HAD SHAKEN HIS HAND. 40% OF PARTICIPANTS IN GROUP 4 SAID THEY REMEMBER MEETING AND SHAKING HAND.

Question 11

What research has been done to show it has important practical uses in the real world?

Answer 11

Loftus - believes leading questions can have such a distorting effect on memory police officers need to be careful phrasing questions
Devlin Report - recommended juries should not convict on the evidence on a single EWT alone

Question 12

What was found in Anastasi and Rhodes?

Answer 12

Individuals from three different age groups shown photographs and asked to rate attractiveness, when participants were later given a photo recognition task and asked to identify faces they they had already seen and rated earlier, all age groups were more accurate in identifying faces from their own age group (so age bias important factor)

Question 13

What was found in Zargosa and McCloskey?

Answer 13

Argued that many answers participants give in lab studies of EWT, are the result of demand characteristics. Participants do not usually want to let the researcher down and want to appear helpful and attentive when trying to recall, so may guess when don’t know answer

Question 14

What effect does anxiety have?

Answer 14

Strong physical and emotional effects. However it isn’t clear whether these effect make EWT recall better or worse, research to support both sides

Question 15

What research suggest there’s a negative effect on recall for anxiety?

Answer 15

Johnson and Scott

Question 16

What was the method of Johnson and Scott

Answer 16

-Led participants to believe that they were going to be taking part in a lab experiment. While seated in waiting room, participants heard an argument in an adjoining room
1. In low anxiety condition, more of a discussion was heard followed by a man leaving the room with a pen with grease on his hands
2. In high anxiety condition, heated discussion heard accompanied by sound of breaking glass and man leaving room holding pen knife with blood
-Participants asked to identify man from 50 photos

Question 17

What were the results of the Johnson and Scott study?

Answer 17

Those in condition 1 having experienced low anxiety were accurate 49% of the time
Those in condition 2 having experienced high anxiety were accurate 33% of the time

Question 18

What does Johnson and Scott’s study suggest?

Answer 18

Phenomenon is called the weapon focus
Loftus et al claimed that during violent crimes, arousal may focus the witness more on central details of the attack rather than peripheral details

Question 19

What research suggests there’s a positive effect on recall for anxiety?

Answer 19

Yuille and Cutshall

Question 20

What was the method in Yuille and Cutshall?

Answer 20

Conducted study of a real life shooting in a gun shop in Vancouver, Canada
-Owner shot a thief dead, 21 witnesses, 13 agreed to take part in study, interviews held 4-5 months after incident and compared to original police interviews at time of shooting
-Using 7 point scale witnesses also asked how stressed they felt at time of incident and had any emotional problems since then

Question 21

What was the results of Yuille and Cutshall?

Answer 21

-Witnesses very accurate in accounts and little change 5 months on from shooting
-Participants who reported highest levels of stress were most accurate (88%) compared to less stressed group (75%)

Question 22

What explanation is therefor the contradictions with anxiety?

Answer 22

The “Yerkes-Dodson Law”

Question 23

What is the Yerkes-Dodson Law?

Answer 23

It suggests that the relationship between emotional arousal and accuracy is not a simple one, if arousal is too low or too high accuracy is poor. Accuracy improves under conditions of moderate arousal.

Question 24

What are the evaluations of anxiety?

Answer 24

😒Evidence to contradict weapon focus effect (Pickel)
😒Ethical issues surrounding research into anxiety on EWT (protection from psychological harm)
😒Research suggest may be influenced by individual differences (Bothwell et al)
😒Evidence suggest EWT influenced by demand characteristics (filmed crime)
😒Yerkes-Dodson law too simplistic (Anxiety difficult to define and measure, has many elements)

Question 25

What study contradicts the weapon focus effect? how?

Answer 25

Pickel - conducted experiment where thief entered hairdressing salon carrying scissors, handgun, wallet or raw chicken. EWT accuracy significantly poor in high unusualness - chicken and handgun

Question 26

What are the findings in Bothwell et al study?

Answer 26

Participants assessed for neuroticism. Participants tested and labelled as neurotic or stable. Bothwell et al found stable participants show rising levels of accuracy as stress levels increased whereas opposite for neurotics, accuracy decrease as stress increased.