Memory - misleading information (eyewitness testimony) Flashcards
What is eyewitness testimony?
The ability of people to remember the details of events such as accidents and crimes, which themselves have observed
Who did the research on Leading questions?
Loftus and Palmer
What is the procedure for the leading questions research?
45 participants watched film clips of car accidents and then answered questions about speed i.e ‘how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?’
Five groups of participants each given a different verb in the critical question: hit contacted bumped collided or smashed
What were the findings and conclusion for the leading questions research?
The verb contacted produced a mean estimated speed of 31.8mph.
The verb smashed the mean was 40.5mph
The leading question (verb) biased eyewitness recall of an event. The verb smashed suggested a faster spped of the car than contacted
Why do leading questions affect EWT:
What is response bias explanation?
Wording of a question has no enduring effecr on an eyewitness’s memory of ann event but influences the kind of answers given
Why do leading questions affect EWT:
What is substitution explanation?
Wording of a question does affect eyewitness memory, it interferes with the original memory, disorting its accuracy
Who did the research on post event discussion?
Gabbert et al
What is the procedure for the post event discussion research?
Paired participants watched a video of the same crime, but filmed so each participant could see elements in the event that the other could not
Both participants discussed what they had seen on the video before individually completing a test of recall
What were the findings and conclusions of the post event discussion research?
71% of participants wrongly recalled aspects of the event they did not see in the video but heard in the discussion
Control group - theres was no discussion and no subsequent errors
Evidence of memory conformity
Why does post event information affect EWT:
What is memory contamination?
When co-witnesses discuss a crime, they mix (mis)information from other witnesses in their own memories
Why does post event information affect EWT:
What is memory conformity?
Witnesses go along with each other to win social approval because they believe the other witnesses are right
What are 2 limitations?
Subsitution explanation is evidence challenging it
Evidence does not support memory conformity
One limitation of the subsitution explanation is evidence challenging it…
- 2 new names
Sutherland and Hayne found their participants recalled central details of an event better than peripheral ones, even when asked misleading questions
This is presumably because their attention was focusedd on their central features and these memories were relatively resistant to misleading information
Therefore the original memory of the event survived and was not disorted which is not predicted by the subsitution
Another limitation is that evidence does not support memory conformity….
-2 new names
Skagerberg and Wright’s participants discussed film clips they had seen
The participants recalled a ‘blend’ of what they had seen and what they had heard from their co-witness, rather than one or the other
This suggests that the memory itself is disorted through contamination by post event discussion and is not the result of memory conformity
What is a strength?
Real world applications in the criminal justice system
One strength is real world application in the criminal justice system….
- Name
The consequences of inaccurate EWT are serious. Loftus agrues that police officers should be careful in phrasing questions to witnesses because of disorting effects
Pyschologists are sometimes expert witnesses in trials and explain limits of EWT to juries
Therefore psychologists can improve how the legal system works and protect the innocent from faulty convictions based on unreliable EWT
Counterpoint - Loftus and Palmer showed film clips, a different experience from a….
real event (less stress). Participants are also less concerned about the effect of their responses in a lab study
Therefore researchers may be too pessimistic about the effects of misleading information - EWT may be more reliable than studies suggest
