Memory - EWT Flashcards
What effect does anxiety have on eyewitness testimony?
It increases the accuracy to an extent, but if there is too much then the accuracy decreases rapidly
What was the procedure of Christianson + Hubinette’s 1993 study into anxiety and EWT?
58 ppts witnessed a real bank robbery
IV(1) - victim of crime (bank employee)
IV(2) - bystander
DV - how accurate their testimony was to the CCTV footage
What were the findings of Christianson + Hubinette’s study into anxiety and EWT?
all the victims were above 75% accuracy
What were the conclusions from Christianson + Hubinette’s study into anxiety and EWT?
semantic/episodic memory formation is better when anxious
What were some issues with Christianson + Hubinette’s study into anxiety and EWT?
correlation vs causation
victims were questioned more by the police - rehearsal made them remember better
What was the procedure of Johnson and Scott’s 1976 study into anxiety and EWT?
ppts told they were trialing a new form of interview
IV(1) - ppts overheard an argument and saw a confederate run through the room holding a greasy pen
IV(2) - ppts overheard an argument and saw a confederate run through the room holding a bloody knife
all ppts questioned by the police
DV - accuracy (%) of criminal identification by ppts
What were the findings of Johnson and Scott’s 1976 experiment into anxiety and EWT?
pen - 49% accuracy
knife - 33% accuracy
What was the conclusion from Johnson and Scott’s 1976 experiment into anxiety and EWT?
the weapon focus effect - people focus on the danger above anything else
What were some issues with Johnson and Scott’s 1976 experiment into anxiety and EWT?
individual stress - could be worried about the interview so already anxious
individual differences (education, IQ) - not matched pairs design
knife easier to see as bigger than pen
What was the aim of Loftus and Palmer’s 1974 study into EWT?
can leading questions alter the perception of an event?
What was the procedure of Loftus and Palmer’s 1974 study into EWT?
45 ppts shown 7 videos of car crashes and asked to estimate what speed the cars were going at
IV - the verb used to describe the accident (smash, hit)
DV - the speed estimates
all videos had the same speed cars
What were the findings of Loftus and Palmer’s 1974 experiment into EWT?
hit - 34.0 mph average
smashed - 40.8 mph average
What was the conclusion from Loftus and Palmer’s 1974 experiment into EWT?
memory is altered by expectations from leading questions
What was the procedure for the follow up experiment for Loftus and Palmer?
ppts asked if they had seen broken glass - there wasn’t any in the videos
IV(1) - verb smash used
IV(2) - verb hit used
What were the findings of the follow up experiment for the Loftus and Palmer study?
smash - 32% said they saw glass
hit - 14% said they saw glass
What were the conclusions of the follow up experiment for Loftus and Palmer?
Post event discussion leads to memory reconstruction.
All human memories are reconstructive -> they are interfered with and change each time they’re recalled
What were some issues with the Loftus and Palmer experiments into EWT?
lacks mundane realism due to fake settings - demand characteristics
real EWT more accurate than in fake situations
low ecological validity
What are some advantages of Loftus and Palmer’s experiments into EWT?
well supported research - disney case
ppts shown stories about non-disney characters and asked if they saw them at disneyland - ppts reported that they met them
strong test-retest reliability
What are the 4 techniques used in cognitive interviews?
mental reinstatement
changing order of events
reporting every detail
changing perspective
What is mental reinsatement in cognitive interviews?
achieving a similar state to when the crime happened
usually revisiting crime scene to get more cues
Why is the order of events from a crime changed in a cognitive interview?
Makes the events more distinct as they are not interfered with by other memories (interference theory)
Also serial position effect - events are usually remembered from the start or end better
Why is every detail reported in cognitive interviews?
prevents misleading questions
each detail can be a cue for more memories
What are the benefits of cognititve interviews?
structured
up to 50% more information retrieved
open ended questions helps prevent leading questions
better for witnesses with individual differences (eg old people, low IQ, learning difficulties etc)
What are the drawbacks of cognitive interviews?
time consuming
intensive for interviewer
only useful with cooperative interviewees
requires lots of training - expensive
What was the case of Stephan Kiszco and why did it show the negatives of traditional interviewing?
Kiszco was convicted of murdering a girl
he confessed after 2 days of intensive interviews but didn’t do it
was convinced partly due to individual factors - low IQ, learning difficulties and low confidence
shows that leading questions can alter memory significantly
