Misleading Information Flashcards
What is eyewitness testimony?
The evidence provided in court by a person who witnessed a crime
What is misleading information?
Your memory of an event can be corrupted by later information
What are the two types of misleading information?
- Leading questions- the way a question is worded can influence your recall
- Post event discussion- when witnesses discuss an event, there memory can get contaminated by things that others say
Which psychologist studied misleading questions?
Elizabeth Loftus
Explain which study investigated the effect of leading questions in memory?
Loftus and palmer (1974)- 45 students were asked to watch a video of two cars crashing. They were then asked a question with an interchanging verb for each group. “How fast were the cars going when they … each other?”. The verbs were increasing in damage, contacted, bumped, collided, hit, smashed. They found that the more charge you put behind the verb the faster they said the car was going.
Which study investigated the effect of post event discussion on memory?
Gabbert et al. (2003)- 70% of participants recalled parts of an event they didn’t even see after post event discussion
What is a strength of misleading information?
Real-life application- vast implications of the criminal justice system which relies largely on eye witness testimony. Loftus’ research reveals that leading questions can have such a distorting effect on memory that police officers have now learnt to be careful of when questioning eyewitnesses.
Counter- Loftus and Palmers ptpts watched video clips in a lavatory setting which does not hold the same stress as watching a real crime so they aren’t motivated to provide an accurate response.
What are the 3 limitations of eye witness testimony?
Artificial tasks- a lot of the research lacks ecological validity because they were carried out in labs. This may lead to ptpts not taking it seriously and not getting emotionally aroused so not accurate results. For example Yuille and Cutshall (1986) witnesses to an armed robbery have accurate reports of a crime that happened 4 months ago despite being given two misleading questions. Suggesting that misleading information may have less of an influence on EWT than Loftus suggested.
Individual differences- there is evidence that older people are less accurate than younger people when giving EWT. They have a difficulty remembering the source of their information but the information it’s self in unimpaired. Therefore they become more prone to the effects of misleading information.
Demand characteristics- it can be argued that many off the answers given in lab studies of EWT are the result of demand characteristics. Ptpts don’t usually want to let the researcher down and want to appear helpful. So if they don’t know an answer they guess, especially in yes/no questions.
