misleading info and eyewitness testimony Flashcards
What does reconstructive memory suggest?
we don’t remember like a tape recording we remember bits of information and fill the rest in from our schemas, stereotypes, and scripts. This can lead to false memories
What does misleading information include?
Leading questions and post-event discussions
Define leading questions in EWT
A leading question is one that encourages the witness to answer in a certain way due to the subtle introduction of new information
Give an example of a leading question
What colour hat was the man wearing
What did Loftus and Palmer study?
Studied the use of language in leading questioning
Describe the procedure of Loftus and Palmers study in 1974
-L and P showed 45 American students a car accident and asked them how fast the car was travelling when it; smashed, collided, bumped, hit and contacted the other car
What were the findings of Loftus and Palmers study?
There was a 9mph difference in mean scores estimated between the verbs smashed and collided.
This shows the way the question is worded influences how a person recalls an event
(in this study the more aggressive the verb the faster the ppts thought the car was traveling)
-Response bias
What does Loftus and Palmer’s study show about the effects of leading questions on EWT?
(refer to reconstructive memory)
~The change in the verb eg smashed reconstructed their memory to think car was going faster than it was
Describe Loftus and Palmer’s follow-up study
PPT were asked if they saw any broken glass
(there wasn’t any)
When the verb smashed was used, 16 sais yes, and when the verb hit was used 7 said yes
This shows the more aggressive the verb, the more PPTS recalled something they didn’t see in the clip
-substitution explanation
Give a strength of Loftus and Palmer’s research
It had practical application- The Devlin report recommends that eyewitness testimony should not be enough to convict without any other evidence
This means that Loftus’ research is benefitting to the field of psychology
Give a limitation of Loftus and Palmer’s study
It lacks ecological validity as participants were expecting to watch a clip therefore they are likely to remember details whereas in real life less attention would be paid as we wouldn’t expect a car accident to take place.
so it cannot be generalized to real life and reduces the usefull ness of the research
What is the substitution explanation?
(How can this be used to explain the findings of research into the leading question)
The verb used changes the memory of the participants
(eg verb smashed made PPT more likely to report seeing glass than the verb hit did)
What is response bias?
(How can this be used to explain the findings of research into the leading question)
A type of demand characteristic
The memory of the PPTs hasn’t changed but the verb encourages them to choose a higher speed
Did Yuille and Cutshall’s study support Lotus’ findings?
No
What was the procedure of Yuille and Cutshall’s study?
-examined a real-life shooting where a man attempted to rob a gun shop
-during incident the robber shot the shop owner, he returned fire, killing the robber
-was a number of witnesses
What were the findings of Yuille and Cutshall’s study?
-after tracking down witnesses 5 months later:
1- they were able to recall the incident in detail
2- There was high levels of agreement between witnesses
3- The accounts didn’t alter in response to bias questions
What does Yuille and Cutshall’s study show about the effects of leading questions on EWT?
-In real life, consequences are greater so PPT may think about their answers more, and leading questions have less of an effect therefore the effects are exaggerated in Loftus’ research
- so it cannot be generalized to real life and reduces the useful ness of the research
Why was Yuilles study more accurate than Loftus’s?
Because the study was conducted in real life setting so it had higher mundane realism. This means we can generalise Yuilles study to how leading questions have little effects on EWT in real life
Give a drawback to Yuilles study
Witnesses were questioned months after they gave their first statement so leading questions have less effect when questioned a while after because PPT had already formed a strong memory of the event 5 months on so are less influenced by leading questions
Outline what is meant by post-event discussion
Witnesses discuss what they have seen with co-witnesses leading to the contamination of their memories. Memory conformity can occur which can lead to false memories so the accuracy of the witness’s recall may be reduced
What is memory conformity?
Where people agree with others as they doubt their own memories
What did Gabbert investigate into?
investigated the effect of post-event discussion on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony
Describe the procedure of Gabbert et al research in 2003
- PPTs watched a video of a girl stealing money
-The participants were either tested .individually (control group) or
.in pairs (co-witness group)- Participants in the co-witness group discussed the crime together
-The participants in the co-witness group were told that they had watched the same video, but they had seen different perspectives of the same crime and only one person had actually witnessed the girl stealing.
Describe the findings of Gabbert et al research in 2003
- 71% of the witnesses in the co-witness group recalled information they had not actually seen
-compared to 0% of the controlled group (no post-event discussion)
What does Gabbert’s study show about the effects of pre-event discussion on EWT?
(refer to memory conformity)
Post-event discussion can lead to a change in memory, this shows memory conformity.
People change their responses because of informational social influence which leads to false memories and memory reconstruction
What could we use to counter Gabberts study?
Bodner
What did Bodner et all- 2009 propose?
The effects of post-event discussion can be reduced if PPTs are warned of the effects and are told that anything heard from co-witnesses is second-hand and they should rely on their own memory this leads to better recall of the events
What is the strength of research into misleading information?
Useful application- We can warn real witnesses of the effects of post-event discussion and separate witnesses to avoid it. We should also avoid using leading questions
This is a strength because its led to improved accuracy of EWT in real life
Give 2 limitations of research into misleading information.
-Artificial scenarios aren’t the same as real-life crimes
-Substitution vs response bias?- demand characteristics
Explain how artificial scenarios not being the same as real life is a limitation
In real life anxiety increases, less attention is paid and consequences increase. This means the research has low external validity as it does not reflect real-life scenarios and it doesn’t have much impact in real life. This reduces the usefulness of the studies when generalizing it to real-life
Explain how substitution vs response bias is a limitation of the studies into misleading infomation
We do not know if memories are actually changed or if PPTs are just going along with post-event discussions in the studies as they believe that what they’re supposed to do. This is a form of demand characteristics which is a limitation for the studies on EWT as it may not reflect real life and the findings cannot be generalised
