memory - eye witness testimony Flashcards
what is a leading question ?
a question that aims to lead someone to a specific answer
who did research into leading questions ?
loftus and palmer
what was loftus and palmers research into LQ ?
45 students watched clips of a car crash and were then asked how fast the cars were going when they collided however the verb changed each time
what was Gabberts research ?
two groups - 1st group watched a car crash then discussed what they had seen after, the controlled group didn’t discuss. they found the group which had post event discussion had more inaccuracies than controlled group
evaluate misleading information
- demand characteristics
- individual differences
- lack of ecological validity
+ practical application for police
+ controlled lab studies
what effect does anxiety have on recall ?
could have both positive and negative effect
what is anxiety ?
a state of of emotional and physical arousal and a normal reaction to stress.
what was johnson and scotts research ?
ANXIETY = NEGATIVE EFFECT ON EWT - > pp thought they were in lab study but one group whilst in waiting room heard an argument from another room in the low anxiety group a man walked out with a pen in his hand but high anxiety group a man walked out with a knife and blood on his hand . they were then asked to identify the man carrying either object recall was better for low anxiety group.
what is the tunnel theory ?
a witnesses attention narrows to a weapon to focus on
what are the stages of cognitive interview ?
report everything , reinstate the context , change the order, change perspective
who showed anxiety has a negative effect on ewt?
johnson and scott
who showed anxiety has a positive effect on ewt?
yullie and cutshall
what did yullie and cutshall do ?
Asked witnesses of a robbery and shooting to report what happened 5 months after it happened. they then compared this too their original police statement and asked them to rate their anxiety on a scale of 1-10 those with higher anxiety recalled better.
weakness of cognitive interview
takes lots of time
have to train police specially to be able to do it
what does the yerkes dodson law suggest
there is an optimum level of anxiety that allows best recall to take place
what are the forms of misleading information?
leading questions
post-event discussion
what factors effect eye witness testimony?
misleading information
anxiety
Gabberts findings
71% of PP mistakenly recalled things that were not in the video this is compare to 0% of the control group this is memory conformity
what words did loftus and palmer use?
collided, smashed, hit, bumped , contacted
loftus and palmer findings
contacted = 31.8mph
smashed = 40.5mph
what were the findings of loftus and palmers experiment? (concverened with effect on memory)
the wording of a question can alter a persons memory
PP who heard the word smashed later reported seeing broken class in the clip even though there wasnt any
findings of johnson and scott
PP picked out man from 50 photos and found 49% PP identified man holding the pen but only 33% of PP identified man with the bloody knife
what were yuille and cutshalls findings?
very acurrate EW report after 5 months with minor inacurracies - those who reported higher stress = more accurate 88% vs 75%
whats the imporatnce of reportin everything?
discussing trivial details may trigger other important memories
importance of reinstating the context?
by imaginging the setting it may act as a cue for more information (context depednet forgetting)
importance of reversing the order
decreases the likelihood of the the eye witness stating what they expect wouldve happened
importance of changing perspective
prevents the effect of schemas
when was loftus and palmers research?
1974
