Memory : EWT and Misleading Information Flashcards
What is eyewitness testimony?
The ability of people to remember the details of event such as accidents and crimes which they themselves have observed.
What are two factors that affect accuracy of EWT?
Misleading questions
Anxiety
What is misleading information ?
Incorrect information given to the eye witness usually after the event. It can take many forms such as leading questions and post event discussion
What is a leading question ?
A question which because of the way it is phrased suggests a certain answer
What is one study that look in on the effects of leading questions on EWT ?
Lotus and palmer (1974)
What was the aim of Loftus and palmers (1974) study ?
To examine the effects of misleading information on EWT
What was the procedure of loftus and palmers (1974) study ?
Showed 45 students 7 films of different car accidents,
Then gave them a questionnaire after each film
On questionnaire
They were asked a critical leading question
of ‘how fast were the cars going when they hit each other ?’
However the verb in the question could either be
Hit, contacted, bumped,collided,smashed
What were the results of the loftus and palmer study ?
Mean estimated speed for smashed was was 40.5 whilst for contacted was 31.8 mph.
What was the conclusion of loftus and palmers study ?
Demonstrates the response bias explanation as when participants gets leading question using the word smashed they chose higher speed estimate.
Shows that wording of question has no real influence on memory but does on how participants answer question
What was the aim of loftus and and palmers 2nd study ?
To examine the effect of misleading information on EWT
What was the procedure of Loftus and palmers 2nd study ?
3 group of 50 participants viewed video of car accident
Then given questionnaire and asked how fast were cars going with they smashed into each other
Verb that makes this leading question was changed for each group.
Group 1 had hit, group 2 had smashed and 3 had no leading question at all
A week later participants were asked ‘did you see any broken glass’ even though there wasn’t any
What was the results of loftus and palmers second study ?
Those who thought car was travelling faster (smashed group) were more likely to report seeing broken glass
What was the conclusion of the experiment ?
Demonstrates the substitution explanation
That
The wording of a question can actually change participants memory as shown in experiment
What is post event discussion
When there is more than one witness to an event so witnesses may discuss what they have seen with co witnesses or with other people. This may influence the accuracy of each witness’s recall of event
What is one study that looks into the effects of post event discussion ?
Gabbert et al (2003)
What was the procedure of gabbert et al study ?
Showed pair of participants a different video of same event
so each participant viewed unique events
Pairs in one condition , encouraged to discuss the event before individually recalling
What were the results of gabbert et als study ?
71% of witnesses who discussed event went on to mistakenly recall items from discussion
0% did this in control group
What was the conclusion of gabbert et al experiment ?
Witnesses often go along with each other because they believe other witnesses are right and they are wrong
Memory conformity
Explain a strength of research into misleading information peel (practical)
A strength is
Research into misleading information on EWT has useful real life applications
For example research on this has been used to warn the justice system of problems with eye witness identification as it can lead to conviction of innocent people
Research into the effects of misleading info has made a positive difference in real life such as improving law system
A limitation of research into misleading information
Artificial
A limitation of lab experiments such loftus and palmers research
tell us very little about how leading questions affect EWT in real life
Example in the study participants watched film clips of ca accidents.
This is very different from witnessing real life accident
Lack of stress and consequence
Study cant be generalised to real life
Lack of external validity
What is a limitation of research into the effects of misleading information on EWT? (Demand characteristics)
A limitation of research
Many participants performed as a result of demand characteristics
For example zargosa and mccloskey argued that participants answered in a way to appear more helpful and attentive
So would usually answer questions they didn’t know with yes even if event didn’t happen.
This shows that research does not show the true effect of misleading formation on EWT
Reducing internal validity
