Memory: Eyewitness Testimony Flashcards
What is eyewitness testimony?
evidence provided in court by an eyewitness (someone who witnessed the crime/incident)
Why is eyewitness testimony inaccurate? What did this mean for convictions?
- inaccurate because our memory can be easily distorted
- convictions can no longer be based on EWT alone, due to its inaccuracy
What are the factors affecting accuracy of EWT?
- misleading information (including leading questions and post-event discussion)
- anxiety
What is misleading information? How does it affect EWT?
incorrect information given to an EW, which may distort their memory, decreasing the accuracy of EWT
What are leading questions? Give an example:
How do they affect EWT?
- questions phrased in such a way that implies a specific answer
- e.g. Did you see a man wearing a blue hat?
- this may cause the EW to think they saw something specific because the question implied it (e.g. didn’t see a man with a blue hat but thinks they did as their memory is distorted)
- this decreases the accuracy of EWT
What is post-event discussion? How does this affect EWT?
- when witnesses of the same event discuss the details of an incident after it has occured
- this may lead EWs to confuse information from other witnesses with their own memories
- this decreases the accuracy of EWT
Key research on leading questions:
Loftus and Palmer (1974)
What are we evaluating (misleading information)?
whether or not leading questions and post-event discussion affect the accuracy of EWT
Strength of Mis. Info: Loftus and Palmer - car crash/Gabbert et al - crime video
- research support for leading questions and post-event discussion
- see separate flashcards
Strength of Mis. Info: practical applications
- because there is research to suggest that misleading information affects accuracy of EWT
- police and courts can take this into account when interviewing witnesses
- they can refrain from asking leading questions and can prevent witnesses from discussing information after
- research has also lead to the cognitive interview, focused on improving the accuracy of EWT
- this is a strength because the point of psychology is to benefit society, and more accurate EWTs mean that the right person is more likely to be convicted
Weakness of Mis. Info: videos vs real life
- most research involved using videos of crimes/incidents
- emotions are very different in real life, as the stakes of the situation may be higher, and the witness may feel more distressed
- this means that most studies have low ecological validity as we do not know how leading questions and post event discussion affect the accuracy of EWT in real life
- ext: Foster et al found that EWT is more accurate when participants thought the crime was real, further supporting the idea that the findings of research into EWT do not represent the affects of misleading information on EWT in real life
What is anxiety (in the context of EWT)?
a state of physiological and emotional arousal or stress after witnessing a crime
What are the two theories on how anxiety affects EWT?
- anxiety increases the accuracy of EWT
- anxiety decreases the accuracy of EWT
How could anxiety increase the accuracy of EWT?
- anxiety causes physiological responses that heighten awareness (e.g. pupil dilation)
- additionally, heightened emotions cause episodic memories to be stronger, so the incident may be more well remembered
- this means that anxiety could improve the accuracy of EWT
How could anxiety decrease the accuracy of EWT?
- when witnessing a crime/incident, anxiety may lead to fight or flight, where the witness is solely focused on survival
- they may be solely focused on the weapon (if there is one), or focused on running away from danger
- this may cause them to miss important details (e.g. the facial features of the criminal, the colour and make of a car, etc.)
- this means that anxiety could decrease the accuracy of EWT
What is meant by the optimum level of anxiety (for accuracy of EWT)?
- as anxiety increases, the accuracy of EWT increases until a point - the optimum
- after this point, increasing anxiety levels will decrease the accuracy of EWT
- the graph: a curve like a hill, with the highest point of the curve being the optimum anxiety level
Key research on anxiety:
Johnson and Scott (1976)
What are we evaluating (anxiety)?
whether or not anxiety affects the accuracy of EWT
Strength of anxiety: Johnson and Scott (1976) - knife or pen
- research support
- supports the idea that anxiety decreases the accuracy of EWT
Weakness of anxiety: Yuille and Cutshall - gun shooting
- there is contradicting research on anxiety
- a field study by Yuille and Cutshall showed that witnesses of an real anxiety inducing incident (gun shooting) had very accurate recall after
- the thief was shot and killed by the police
- 13 witnesses agreed to the study
- recall was still very accurate 4-5 months after the incident
- this means that anxiety increased the accuracy of EWT, which contradicts with Johnson and Scott’s research. this means we do not know for sure when anxiety will increase or decrease the accuracy of EWT, which is a weakness
- ext: because this was a real life incident, the study has high ecological validity, so it is more likely that the findings of this study represent what would happen in real life
Weakness of anxiety: individual differences
- everyone experiences different levels of anxiety when witnessing a crime/incident
- everyone one behaves differently when anxious
- therefore it is difficult to generalise the findings of research on anxiety, as no one behaves in the same way
- ext: additionally, age is another variable that can affect the accuracy of EWT. it has been found that children and elderly are more likely to give inaccurate EWTs. they may also be more affected by anxiety than others. because there are so many other variables affecting the accuracy of EWT, we do not know for sure how and to what extent anxiety affects the accuracy of EWT
