Memory : Eyewitness Tesimony - Misleading Info

Question 1

Whats an eye witness?

Answer 1

Someone who’s seen/ witnessed a crime (usually present at time of incident)

Question 2

Whats an eye witness testimony?

Answer 2

The evidence provided in court by an eye witness, with a view to identifying the perpetrator

Question 3

Process of EWT

Answer 3

withess encodes details into LTM (encoding may only be partial or distorted - memories may be lost during encoding and retrieval)

Question 4

Whats misleading info?

Answer 4

a key factor that can affect the accuracy of an eyewitness testimony - incorrect info given to an eye witness following an event.
→ can be post-event discussion or leading questions

Question 5

Loftus + Palmer - Aim

Answer 5

Investigate the effect on leading questions on accuracy of EWTs

Question 6

Loftus + Palmer - Method

Answer 6

45 American students divided into 5 groups (of 9) watched a video of a car crash and were asked about the speed of the cars. The verb used in the question, eg:
“How fast were the cars gonig when they smashed/ bumped? contacted with each other?”

3 question types used =
• leading question (suggests a desired answer)
• critical question (used to measure the dependant variable)
• distracter questions (masks focus on critical question, to conceal demand characeristics)

Questionnaire 1: ‘describe video in your own words’, questions including the critical question
Questionnaire 2: 10 questions, including the critical question

Question 7

Loftus + Palmer - Findings

Answer 7

Estimated speed was affected by verb used :
“smashed” → 40.5 mph
“contacted” → 31.8 mph

Question 8

Loftus + Palmer - Conclusion

Answer 8

the accuracy of eyewitness testimonies are affected by leading questions and a single word can affect the accuracy of our judgement

Question 9

Loftus + Palmer - Advs

Answer 9

• real world application → Ronald Cotton
• highly controlled (lab setting)

Question 10

Loftus + Palmer - Disadvs

Answer 10

• questionable ecological validity and mundane realism
• lacks population validity
• highly controlled
• not generalisable to the population
• distorted by false memories → Sutherland + Hayne (2001) found Ps recalled central details better than peripheral ones, even when asked misleading questions because their attention was focused no the central features which were relatively resistant to misleading info

Question 11

Broken Glass experiment

Answer 11

32% of Ps questioned with smashed reported seeing broken glass
14% with hit
12% in control

Question 12

Whats the substitution explanation?

Answer 12

Intensity of the verb alters the memory

Question 13

Whats response bias?

Answer 13

The question changes the response but not the memory

Question 14

What’s post even discussion?

Answer 14

Misleading info can come from other/ co-witnesses when they discuss details of an incident after it occurs

Question 15

Gabbert et al (2003) - Aim

Answer 15

To investigate the effect of post-event discussion on the accuracy of EWTsq

Question 16

Gabbert et al (2003) - Method

Answer 16

60 students from University of Aberdeen and 60 older adults watched a video of a girl stealing a wallet. Ps were tested individually (control) or in pairs (control-witness). Co-witness group were told that they’d watched the same video (only one saw the girl steal). Ps discussed then did a questionnaire.

Question 17

Gabbert et al (2003) - Findings

Answer 17

71% recalled info they didn’t see
60% said the girl was guilty tho hadn’t seen her commit a crime

Question 18

Gabbert et al (2003) - Conclusion

Answer 18

Post event discussion has an impact on EWT

Question 19

Gabbert et al (2003) - Advs

Answer 19

• good population validity (uses a mix of young and old)

Question 20

Gabbert et al (2003) - Disadvs

Answer 20

• questionable ecological validity (knew they were being tested for something)
• unable to conclude why distortion occurs
• evidence challenging it
• memory conformity explanation → Skagerberg + Wright (2008) has Ps discuss film clips they’d seen (one had dark brown hair, one had light brown). Ps recalled a blend of what everyone had seen (medium brown) rather than one or the other suggesting the memory is distorted through contamination of post even discussion and its the result of memory conformity

Question 21

Whats memory contamination?

Answer 21

When co-witnesses discuss a crime, they mix (mis)info from other witnesses with their own memories

Question 22

Whats memory conformity?

Answer 22

Witnesses go along with each other to win social approval or because they believe the other witnesses are right

Question 23

Whats memory substitution?

Answer 23

Wording of a question effects the EWT memory by inferring with the original memory, distorting its accuracy

Question 24

Whats a leading question?

Answer 24

Suggests a particular answer/ contains the info the questioner is looking to have confirmed

Question 25

Whats the conformity effect?

Answer 25

Occurs when a witnesses recollection is altered/ influenced by interacting with others who have differing versions of the events