misleading information

Question 1

what is eye-witness testimony?

Answer 1

A witness’ evidence in relation to a crime in usually involving the identification of the perpetrator

Question 2

what is a leading question?

Answer 2

a question asked to a witness with its form or content leading to a desired answer

Question 3

what is misleading information?

Answer 3

Supplying information in order to alter the memory of an eye-witness’ response to a crime

Question 4

Describe Loftus and Palmer’s key study in 1974

Answer 4

45 participants were shown 7 different car accidents in a random order which ranged from 5 to 30 seconds
There were 5 experimental conditions of which the experimenters asked a series of questions about the accident, the key question about how fast the cars were going when they hit one another
The experimenter asked the question using different verbs in the form of a misleading question these were the verbs used : smashed, hit, collided,bumped and contacted
The mean average speed for smashed was 40.8mph
The mean average speed for collided was 39.3
The mean average speed for bumped was 38.1
The mean average speed for contacted was 31.8
The mean average speed for hit was 34.0

Question 5

Name the second experimental procedure

Answer 5

Participants were split into three groups and were asked 10 questions about an accident
To test whether these results were in response to a participants response bias or the leading question participants were asked to watch a one minute video
After some time participants were asked the same question with different verbs but only this time were they asked : did you see any glass that links to post discussion events. Participants had their memory altered presumably due to the misleading question
Of those in the experimental condition of the verb smashed 16 participants said yes and 34 said no
Those in the experimental condition hit 7 said yes and 43 said no

Question 6

Discuss conformity in relation to post event discussion

Answer 6

Fiona Gabbet and colleagues in 2003 found that co-witnesses were more likely to reach a consensus in relation to what happened in an event
She made participants to be paired and watch the same event but in different videos
She then had one control group of which participants were asked to recall what had happened after they had discussed the event with their partner
They found that 71% of participants made the mistake of recalling events in the perspective of the other participants’ video.

Question 7

discuss repeat interviewing in relation to eye-witness testimony

Answer 7

Each time an eye-witness is interviewed there is a chance that the comments of the interviewer are incorporated into their recollection of events. Coupled with leading information an individual’s memory are more likely to be altered
LaRooy et al in 2005 found that this was the case specifically for children