Memory : Eye Witness Testimony

Question 1

What is Eyewitness Testimony (EWT)?

Answer 1

The ability of people to remember the details of events, such as accidents and crimes, which they themselves have observed. Accuracy of eyewitness testimony can be affected by factors, such as misleading information, leading questions, and anxiety

Question 2

What is misleading information?

Answer 2

Incorrect information given to the eyewitness usually after the event ( hence is often called post event information). It can take many forms such as leading questions and post event discussion between co-witnesses and/or other people.

Question 3

What is a Leading question?

Answer 3

A question which, because of the way it is phrase suggests a certain item. For example: “what is the knife in the accused left hand?” this suggests that answer is ‘left hand’

Question 4

What is Post event discussion (PED)

Answer 4

Occurs when there is more than one witness to an event. Witnesses may discuss what they have seen with co- witnesses or with other people. This may influence the accuracy of each witnesses recall of events.

Question 5

Yuille & Cutshall (1986) - EWT influenced by misleading information ( aim and method)

Answer 5

• AIM: To find out if eyewitness testimony for real events can be influenced by
misleading information and how reliable EWT is.

• METHOD: 13 witnesses to robbery and murder in Canada were re-interviewed 5 months after the crime. A young man robbed a gun store, but the owner tried to prevent the man from leaving the shop. This resulted in the shopkeeper being shot and injured and the young man being shot 6 times and killed. The re-interview included 2 misleading questions.

Question 6

Yuille & Cutshall (1986) - EWT on misleading questions ( results and conclusions)

Answer 6

• RESULTS: The misleading questions had no effect on EWT. In fact they still had very accurate recall for the crime. Despite the violent nature of the event, witness accounts of the incident proved to be very reliable and accurate. The most distressed eyewitnesses actually had the best recall!

• CONCLUSION: Witnesses of real-life incidents have remarkably accurate memories, even when the incident involved high levels of anxiety and weapons.

Question 7

What is memory conformity?

Answer 7

Memory conformity: people being influenced by another person’s report. This results in the individual’s memory report becoming more similar to another

Question 8

What are the two different theories? That explain Why does post-event discussion affect EWT?

Answer 8

• source monitoring theory
• conformity theory

Question 9

What is SOURCE MONITORING THEORY?

Answer 9

memories of the event are genuinely distorted. The eyewitness can recall information about the event (accurate and inaccurate), but they can’t recall where it came from. Was it from their own memory of the event or did they hear it from someone else? This is known as source confusion.

Question 10

What is conformity theory?

Answer 10

CONFORMITY THEORY, on the other hand, argues that eyewitness memories are not actually distorted by post-event discussion. Instead, the eyewitness’s recall appears to change only because they go along with the accounts of co-witnesses. They do this either to win social approval, or because they genuinely believe other witnesses are right and they are wrong.

Question 11

What is Gabbert study on accuracy of eyewitness testimony ( aim and method)?

Answer 11

Aim : Investigated the effect of post-event discussion on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony.

Method :

• Sample consisted of 60 students from the University of Aberdeen and 60 older adults recruited from a local community.
• Participants watched a video of a girl stealing money from a wallet. The participants were either tested individually (control group) or in pairs (co-witness group).
• The participants in the co-witness group were told that they had watched the same video, however they had in fact seen different perspectives of the same crime and only one person had actually witnessed the girl stealing.
• Participants in the co-witness group discussed the crime together.
• All of the participants then completed a questionnaire, testing their memory
of the event.

Question 12

What are the Gabbert ( results and conclusions ) study on PED?

Answer 12

• Gabbert et al. found that 71% of the witnesses in the co-witness group recalled information they had not actually seen and 60% said that the girl was guilty, despite the fact they had not seen her commit a crime.

• These results highlight the issue of post-even discussion and the powerful effect this can have on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony.

Question 13

Evaluation PED

Answer 13

-The results of Gabbert et al. also have questionable ecological validity. The participants in the co-witness condition witnessed different perspectives of the same crime, as would typically be the case in real life crimes.
- Gabbert et al. tested two different populations, university students and older adults and found little difference between these two conditions. Therefore her results provide good population validity and allow us to conclude that post-even discussion affects younger and older adults in a similar way.

Question 14

What is Yerkes Dodson Law-Anxiety

Answer 14

▪Performance improves with increase in arousal up to some optimal point and then
decreases with further arousal
▪Small to medium increases in arousal may
increase the accuracy of EWT but high levels interfere with accuracy

Question 15

What was Loftus on anxiety?

Answer 15

▪ Monitored eyewitnesses eye movements
▪ Found: that the presence of a weapons causes attention to be drawn to the weapon
▪ Attention is drawn away from factors such as a persons face
•Anxiety can have a positive and negative effect on the accuracy of EWT

Question 16

What is Johnson and Scott/Loftus et al (1979) study on the affects of anxiety on eye witness testimony? ( aim and method )

Answer 16

Aim: To investigate the affects of anxiety on eye witness testimony.
Procedure:
- Johnson and Scott invited participants to a laboratory where they were told to wait in the reception area. The receptionist excused herself leaving the participant alone.

▪Loftus used two conditions
- In both conditions P’s heard a discussion in an adjoining room
- In the ‘no weapon’ group the participant overheard a conversation about equipment failure then an individual left the laboratory passing the participant with a pen in hand and his hands covered in grease.

▪ In the ‘weapon group’ the participants heard an altercation and
the sound of breaking glass and chairs falling then an individual left running into the reception area holding a bloody letter opener.
▪ Both groups were then shown 50 photographs and asked to
identify the person who had left the laboratory. The participants were informed that the suspect may, or may not be present in the photographs.

Question 17

What is Johnson and Scott/Loftus et al (1979) study? ( results)

Answer 17

• Those who had witnessed the man holding a pen correctly identified the suspect 49% of the time.
• Those who had witnessed the man holding a knife, correctly identified the target 33% of the time.
• The participants who were exposed to the knife had higher levels of anxiety and were more likely to focus their attention on the weapon and not the face of the target.
• A phenomenon known as the weapon focus effect. Therefore, the anxiety associated with seeing a knife reduces the accuracy of eyewitness testimony.

Question 18

What was Yuille & Cutshall (1986) study for EWT? On misleading questions ( aim and method)

Answer 18

AIM: To find out if eyewitness testimony for real events can be influenced by misleading information and how reliable EWT is.

METHOD: 13 witnesses to robbery and murder in Canada were re-interviewed 5 months after the crime. A young man robbed a gun store, but the owner tried to prevent the man from leaving the shop. This resulted in the shopkeeper being shot and injured and the young man being shot 6 times and killed. The re-interview included 2 misleading questions.

Question 19

What was Yuille & Cutshall (1986) study for EWT? On misleading questions ( results and conclusions )

Answer 19

RESULTS: The misleading questions had no effect on EWT. In fact they still had very accurate recall for the crime. Despite the violent nature of the event, witness accounts of the incident proved to be very reliable and accurate. The most distressed eyewitnesses actually had the best recall!

CONCLUSION: Witnesses of real-life incidents have remarkably accurate memories, even when the incident involved high levels of anxiety and weapons.

Question 20

EFFECTS OF ANXIETY on EWT?

Answer 20

• There is a difference in results found in lab experiments and in real life.
• Recall after real life events is generally better.
• Sympathetic arousal caused by acute stress enhances memory.
• This is likely to be greater in real life situations

Question 21

Evaluate anxiety affecting EWT

Answer 21

•Support from both lab and field experiments
•Scientific support
•But lab exp lack ecological
validity-what problems does this cause?
•But they are controlled-why is this good?

Question 22

What is anxiety?

Answer 22

Anxiety is a factor that has been shown to affect the accuracy of eye-witness testimony.Loftus proposed the ‘weapon focus effect’, which suggests that the anxiety caused as a result of witnessing a weapon focuses the attention away from potential perpetrators and reduces the accuracy of eyewitness testimony.

Question 23

What did Geiselman develop?

Answer 23

Developed the cognitive interview identifying 4 key principles that would enhance recall :
- Context reinstatement (CR)
- Report everything (RE)
- Recall from changed perspective (CP)
- Recall in reverse order (RO)

Question 24

What is context Reinstatement (CR)?

Answer 24

Is where a person mentally recalls the context of the event. For example, a person might record the time of day, the weather who they were with or even their feelings. These details can act as a trigger to help the person recall more information.

Question 25

What is report everything ( RE)

Answer 25

Is where a person recalls every detail they can remember even those that may seem trivial

Question 26

What is recall from changed perspective (CP)

Answer 26

Is where a person considers the event from someone else’s point of view for example, they might consider what the offender saw

Question 27

What is recall in reverse order (RO)

Answer 27

Is where a person recalls the events in reverse chronological order.