Memory: Eyewitness Testimony (L10-12)

Question 1

What is an eyewitness testimony?

Answer 1

• the evidence supplied to a court by people who have seen a crime, based on their memory of the incident
• this evidence can include identification of the perpetrator or details of the crime
• juries are often heavily influenced by eyewitnesses

Question 2

What are leading questions?

Answer 2

• questions that are phrased in such a way to encourage a witness to give a certain answer

Question 3

What is the response-bias explanation, LQ?

Answer 3

• argues that leading questions do not affect memory
• affects merely the answer a person chooses to give

Question 4

What is the substitution-bias, LQ?

Answer 4

• proposes that leading questions distort memories because they contain misleading information

Question 5

LQ, Procedure of Loftus and Palmer (1974)?

Answer 5

• showed 45 American students a film of a car crash
• asked them to estimate the speed that the cars were travelling when they crashed
• however, different verbs were used in the questions depending on the condition
• the verbs were contacted, hit, bumped, collided, or smashed

Question 6

LQ, Findings of Loftus and Palmer (1974)?

Answer 6

• participants in the ‘contacted’ condition estimated the speed as 31mph
• ‘smashed’ estimated 41mph
• a week later participants were asked if they saw any broken glass
• even though there was no broken glass shown in the film, 32% of Ps in the ‘smashed’ condition reported seeing brown glass
• compared to only 12% in the control condition (contacted)
• shows that leading questions have a significant impact on what people recall and can change a persons entire memory of an event

Question 7

Evaluation of Loftus and Palmer (1974) +ve:

Answer 7

• laboratory experiment therefore highly controlled
• reduces the chance of extraneous variables, increasing the validity of the results
• therefore, easy for psychologists to replicate their research study to see if the same results are found
• meaning study is reliable

Question 8

Evaluation of Loftus and Palmer (1974) -ve:

Answer 8

• questionable ecological validity as Ps watched a video of a car crash
• people who witness a real car accident will have a stronger emotional connection the the event
• may not be as susceptible to leading questions
• lacks population validity, study consists of 45 American students
• students less experienced drivers so may be less competent at estimating speeds
• also unable to generalise the results of this study to other populations
• older and more experienced drivers may be more accurate in their judgment of speeds and therefore less susceptible to leading questions

Question 9

How can memory be distorted?

Answer 9

• leading questions
• post event discussion

Question 10

What is memory contamination, PED?

Answer 10

• the memory of an event can be contaminated through discussing events with others due to misinformation

Question 11

What is memory conformity, PED?

Answer 11

• a desire for social approval can lead co-witnesses to reach a consensus view of what happened

Question 12

PED, Procedure of Gabbert et al. (2003)?

Answer 12

• put Ps in pairs and got them to watch a different video of the same event so that they each got unique details
• in one condition the pairs were encouraged to discuss the event with one another before individually recalling the event
• in the other condition they did not discuss what they had seen with one another

Question 13

PED, Findings of Gabbert et al. (2003)?

Answer 13

• 71% of witnesses who had discussed the event went on to mistakenly recall details that they could not have seen themselves
• but that they had learned of during the discussion with their partner

Question 14

Evaluation of Gabbert et al. (2003) +ve:

Answer 14

• study has population validity
• 2 different populations, students and older adults, were compared and there were no significant differences between these 2 groups
• allows us to conclude that post event discussion affects younger and older adults in a similar way

Question 15

Evaluation of Gabbert et al. (2003) -ve:

Answer 15

• lacks ecological validity
• Ps knew they were taking part in an experiment
• they therefore are more likely to have paid close attention to the details of the video clip
• the results do not reflect real life where witnesses may be exposed to less info

Question 16

What is anxiety?

Answer 16

• a state of apprehension, uncertainty, and fear resulting from a threatening situation
• when anxiety is high it can often impair both physical + psychological functioning
• several psychologists have suggested that the anxiety that occurs when witnessing a crime can prevent accurate and detailed recall of that crime

Question 17

What is the weapon focus effect? (anxiety)

Answer 17

• the presence of a weapon during a crime increases anxiety
• this could impair witnesses’ memory of the crime
• people who observe a violent crime will often pay attention to the aspect of the situation posing the most threat to them due to the anxiety these weapons cause
• means that witnesses who see a violent crime involving a weapon can often describe a
  criminal’s weapon in great detail but can’t recall much about the criminals themselves

Question 18

A, Procedure of Loftus (1979)?

Answer 18

• wanted to see whether anxiety affected a person’s ability to recognise the perpetrator of a crime
• in experimental condition ps overhear a heated and hostile argument between two people
• also heard the sounds of furniture being overturned + broken glass
• then a man emerged carrying a letter opener covered in blood
• in control condition ps overheard a conversation between two people about lab equipment failure before a man with grease all over his hands emerged carrying a pen
• ps were then asked to identify the
  person they had just seen from 50 photos

Question 19

A, Findings of Loftus (1979)?

Answer 19

• only 33% of ps in bloody letter opener condition recognised the photo of the person carrying the letter opener
• 49% of ps in pen condition recognised the photo of the person carrying the pen
• Loftus argued that this occurred because people in the former condition had focused on the bloody letter opener rather than the
  person carrying it
• as the letter opener was a weapon that could pose a threat to them

Question 20

Evaluation of Loftus +ve:

Answer 20

• study is supported by other research studies
• Loftus & Burns (1982) assigned ps to one of two conditions
• one group watched a violent short film where a boy was shot in the head
• other group watched a non-violent short film of a crime
• ps were less accurate in recall when they
  saw the short film with a gun than those who watched the non-violent movie

Question 21

Evaluation of Loftus -ve:

Answer 21

• study lacks ecological validity
• although they were waiting in the reception area outside of the laboratory, they may have anticipated that smt was going to happen
• could have affected the accuracy of their
  judgments + the validity of the study
  = study violated numerous ethical guidelines
  = ps were deceived about nature of the experiment + not protected from
  psychological harm
  = ps were exposed to a man who they were led
  to believe had just killed someone, holding a bloodied knife, could have caused them extreme distress
  = ps may have left the experiment feeling exceptionally stressed, especially if they, or someone they knew, had been involved in knife crime
• Yuille and Cutshall (1986) investigated the effect of anxiety in a real life shooting, in which one person was killed and another person seriously wounded
• 21 witnesses originally interviewed by investigating police and 13 of these
  witnesses, aged between 15 and 32, agreed to take part in Yuille and Cutshall’s follow-up interview five months later
• witnesses were accurate in their eyewitness accounts five months later and little change was found in their testimony
• furthermore, the witnesses avoided leading questions and those who had been most distressed at the time of the shooting gave the most accurate account
• in real cases leading questions and anxiety do not affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimony the same way they do in the lab
  = are individual differences in how anxiety affects memory
  = some people actually have better recall when they are anxious
  = Christianson and Hubinette (1983) conducted a research study using 110 real life eyewitnesses who had witnessed one of 22 bank robberies
  = some were onlookers and some were bank
  clerks who had been directly threatened by the robbers
  = was found that victims were more accurate than onlookers in their description of the bank
  robbers

Question 22

Who criticised the standard interview + why?

Answer 22

• Fisher et al. (1987) studied real police interviews over a four-month period and found that questions were brief, direct, fact-based and closed
• witnesses were often interrupted and not allowed to expand upon their answers
• this was referred to as the standard interview
• Fisher et al. (1987) argued that this might be contributing to the failure of eyewitnesses to accurately recall the event they had witnessed

Question 23

Who developed the cognitive interview + why?

Answer 23

• Geiselman et al. (1985) developed the cognitive interview
• in order to improve police interview techniques and obtain more accurate info from eyewitnesses

Question 24

What are the main stages of the cognitive interview?

Answer 24

• there are 4 main stages
  1. context reinstatement
• witness tries to mentally recreate an image of the situation
• including details of the environment, such as the weather conditions and their emotional state, including their feelings at the time
  of the incident
• these may act as retrieval cues (context-dependent
  cues) to improve recall
  2. report everything
• interviewer encourages the witness to recall all
  details about the event, even though these details may seem to be unimportant
• may highlight details that have been overlooked and
  trigger other memories
  3. recall from changed perspective
• witness tries to mentally recreate the situation from different points of view, e.g. describing what
  another witness present at the scene would have seen
• promotes a more holistic view of the event which might enhance recall and reduce the influence of schemas
• schemas are mental structures of preconceived idea
  4. recall in reverse order
• witness is asked to recall the scene in a
  different chronological order, e.g. from the end to the beginning
• this should verify the accuracy of the witnesses’ account and reduce the possibility that recall may be influenced by schemas/expectations

Question 25

What additional guidelines did Fisher add to police interviews?

Answer 25

• encourage the witness to relax and speak slowly (this will reduce anxiety and may enhance recall)
• avoid distractions
• use open-ended questions
• offer comments to help clarify witness statements (may improve detail of the statement)

Question 26

The Cognitive Interview +ve:

Answer 26

• Geiselman et al. (1985) showed participants a video of a simulated crime and tested recall using the cognitive interview, standard interview, or hypnosis
• cognitive interview led to the most information being recalled by the eyewitnesses
  = Fisher et al. (1990) trained real police officers in Miami to use the enhanced cognitive interview when interviewing eyewitnesses
  = they found that on average there was a 46% increase in the amount of information witnesses gave = 90% of the information that could be verified was accurate

Question 27

The Cognitive Interview -ve:

Answer 27

• Koehnken et al. (1999) found that witnesses recalled more incorrect info when interviewed with the cognitive interview compared to the standard interview technique
• perhaps because more detailed recall increases the chance of making a mistake
  = cognitive interview is time consuming to implement and police officers often do not have the time, training and resources to use it
• Memon et al. (1993) reported that police officers believed that ‘Recall From Changed Perspective’ stage of the cognitive interview misleads witnesses into
  speculating about the event they witnessed rather than reporting what they actually saw
• for this reason the police were reluctant to use it.