Memory : Misleading Information Eyewitness Testimony Flashcards
What is misleading information?
One factor affecting the accuracy of EWT is misleading information, this is the incorrect information given to an eyewitness.
Define the TWO types of misleading information.
- Leading questions : suggest an answer by providing some information to hint this. E.g. “Did you see a knife in the attackers hand?”
- Post event discussion : when a group of eyewitnesses discuss what they witnessed.
How does misleading information affect EWT?
Eyewitnesses exposed to misleading information can experience the misinformation effect. This refers to when the accuracy of the EWT is negatively affected by misleading information post event. (Eg. Leading question or post event discussion).
Why does misleading information affect EWT?
It can be explained by the idea that it it an example of retroactive interference, as the newly introduced misleading information (eg. Recently asked leading questions or recent post event discussion) interferes with a persons ability to retrieve information of the witnessed event which was encoded at an earlier point in time
What are the TWO theories about how misleading information affects EWT?
- Misleading information blends with the originally encoded episodic memory of the witnessed event and distorts the original memory.
- Misleading information has no effect on the original memory but that it is simply earlier to recall the older memory.
Why does post-event discussion affect the EWT?
The effect of post event discussion on the accuracy of EWT can also be explained by the social influence exerted by the other eyewitnesses. Eyewitnesses may alter their testimony to conform to others. Both NSI and ISI help explain this memory conformity, as it could be eyewitnesses feel pressured to conform so they wont feel rejected by others (NSI). Or they conform as they are uncertain about what happened.
What studies have demonstrated the impact of leading questions on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony?
For example, Loftus and Palmer asked participants to estimate the speed of a car they has witnessed in a video clip of a car accident. They found that participants who were asked ‘How fast the car was going when it smashed into the other car?’, gave a much faster estimate than participants who were asked ‘how fast the cars were going when they made contact with each other?’. This finding shows how the phrasing of the question influences the eyewitness accounts, suggesting that the accuracy of EWT can be affected by leading questions. Similarly, participants were then asked whether they had witnessed Brocken glass in the video, and those who were asked leading questions with more violent verbs ( eg smashed ), were more likely to say yes than those asked with gentle verbs. This suggests the misinformation effect caused by the leading questions actually altered their memory, supporting the claim that misleading information becomes blended with the original memory. However, one issue with this study is its sample of 150 American students. Although this sample size is quite large, it has a biased age profile. This matters as research has indicated that the misinformation effect varies in its severity depending on the age of the eyewitnesses. This, the studies findings on the negative impact of leading questions on EWT may not generalise to eyewitnesses from different age groups.
Why is a limitation of research into the effects of misleading information on eyewitness testimony its weak ecological validity?
Researchers investigating EWT tend to rely on showing staged events to participants. Eg, the eyewitnesses in the Loftus and Palmer experiment watched a video clip of a traffic accident in a lab setting. Thus this doesn’t represent real life experiences in which a situation like this would be filled with intense emotions. This issue of ecological validity has led to some US states banning the testimony of expert witnesses on the grounds that lab experiments cannot tell us about the impact of misleading information on the accuracy of real world EWT.
What is a strength of research into the effects of misleading information on eyewitness testimony?
It has real life implications. According to the Innocence Project, “Eyewitness misidentification is the single greatest cause of wrongful convictions nationwide, playing a role in more than 75% of convictions overturned through DNA testing”. This emphasises the importance of implications of research into factors effecting EWT as it reveals how dangerous it is for the justice system to rely heavily on EWT, when it can clearly be misleading. Moreover, this research can help improve the way the legal system works and reduce the likelihood of wrongful convictions. Eg the jurors could be educated on this topic. Furthermore, investigators and lawyers could be educated on how to interview eyewitnesses so they avoid introducing misleading information that could bias their testimony. Therefore research into the effects of misleading information on eyewitness testimony has the potential to benefit society by improving the way justice systems work.
