Memory - Eyewitness Testimony

Question 1

Eye-witness testimony

Answer 1

An account of an event given by people that they witnessed

Question 2

Leading questions

Answer 2

A question asked to get a certain response from the participants

Question 3

Post-event discussion

Answer 3

Discussion of details of a crime following the incident

Question 4

How do leading questions affect EWT?

Answer 4

Response bias - answer been influenced but did not lead to a false memory
Memory representation altered - changes perception of an event

Question 5

Study of EWT (1) - Leading questions

Answer 5

Loftus & Palmer (1974) - 45 participants (5 x 9 participants) asked how fast the cars in the video were going -> the verbs in the question were manipulated in terms of severity

Question 6

Study of EWT (2) - Post-event discussion

Answer 6

Gabbert et al (2003) - participants watched a video of a crime from different perspectives. Participants paired together discussed what had been seen before individually completing a recall test

71% mistakenly

Question 7

Strength of factors affecting EWT

Answer 7

Validity (Real world practical usage - leading questions do have an effect so police need to be wary of phrasing)

Question 8

Limitations of factors affecting EWT

Answer 8

Lack of mundane realism (Loftus & Palmer - video clips are different experience to real stressful situation)
Individual differences (Anastasi & Rhodes - own age bias & ages 18-25 had more accurate EWT)

Question 9

Anxiety has a negative effect on recall

Answer 9

Johnson & Scott
- Waiting room overhearing a heated argument
- Low anxiety condition: man enters covered in grease holding a pen
- High anxiety condition: man enters with bloody knife

Those in the high anxiety condition were less likely to be able to identify the man because of weapon focus (33%)

Question 10

Anxiety has a positive effect on recall

Answer 10

Yuille & Cutshall
- Interviews 4-5 months after a shooting & compared to police interviews
- Rated their stress levels at time of shooting from 1-7

Accurate in their accounts w/little change over 5 months
Highest stress rating -> most accurate (88%)

Question 11

Contradictory findings explanation

Answer 11

Yerkes-Dodson Law
- Inverted U relationship between emotional arousal & performance

Question 12

Limitations of anxiety as a factor

Answer 12

Extraneous variables (Discussions about the event, accounts seen in media, effects of police interviews may influence accuracy)
Unethical (subject to psychological harm by creating anxiety for the participants)

Question 13

Cognitive interview

Answer 13

• Report everything
• Reinstate the context
• Reverse the order
• Change perspective

Question 14

Why: report everything

Answer 14

Some details, even trivial, can trigger other memories to be unlocked

Question 15

Why: reinstate the context

Answer 15

Context-dependent cues for details that could have been forgotten otherwise

Question 16

Why: reverse the order

Answer 16

Prevents schemas from changing details due to expectations

Question 17

Why: change perspective

Answer 17

Prevent schemas & expectations from making up details

Question 18

Enhanced cognitive interview

Answer 18

Fisher et al (1987)
- Additional elements added to focus on social dynamics
- Reducing eye-witness anxiety, minimise distractions, getting witness to speak slowly & asking open ended questions

Question 19

Strengths of cognitive interview

Answer 19

Credible (Milne & Bull - individual elements are equally valuable and can produce more information than police interviews)
Effective (ECI - provides consistently more results when combined in meta-analysis by Kohnken et al - practical benefits to society)

Question 20

Limitations of cognitive interview

Answer 20

Time consuming (takes more time to establish rapport with witness to perform a CI & special training is required)
Not standardised (techniques are slightly different per study so evaluation of effectiveness is not possible)