misleading information Flashcards
what is misleading information?
supplying information that may lead to a witness’ memory for a crime to be altered. there are two examples: leading questions and post event discussion.
what does leading question mean?
a question that, either by its form or content, suggests to the witness what answer is desired or leads him or her to the desired answer.
what key study supports leading questions?
loftus and palmer 1974.
procedure of experiment 1 (loftus and palmer 1974)
45 students were shown film clips of different traffic accidents. after each film the participants were given a questionnaire which asked them to describe the accident. there was one critical question ‘about how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?’ four groups were given the verbs smashed, collided, bumped or contacted in place of the word hit.
why was the critical question a leading question?
this critical question was a leading question because it suggested the answer that a participant might give.
findings of loftus and palmer 1974
the mean estimated speed was calculated for each participant group. the verb contacted resulted in a mean estimated speed of 31.8mph. for the verb smashed, the mean was 40.5mph. the leading question biased the eyewitness recall of an event.
why was an experiment 2 conducted?
the response bias explanation suggests that the wording of the question has no real effect on the participants memories, but just influences how they decide to answer. whereas, loftus and palmer conducted a second experiment that supported the substitution explanation where the wording of a leading question actually changes the participants memory of the film clip.
what was the critical question asked in experiment 2?
‘did you see any broken glass?’ was asked. presumably, those who thought the car was travelling faster might be more likely to think that there would be broken glass.
findings of experiment 2
the leading question did change the actual memory a participant had for the event.
what does post-event discussion mean?
ewt testimonies might be contaminated discussing events with others and/or being questioned multiple times. this is because they combine (mis)information from other witnesses with their own memories.
conformity effect
this was investigated by fiona gabbert and colleagues 2003 whereby co-witnesses may reach a consensus view of what actually happened.
procedure of fiona gabbert and colleagues 2003
participants were in pairs where each partner watched a different video of the same event so that they each viewed unique items. pairs in one condition were encouraged to discuss the event before each partner individually recalled the event they watched.
findings
a very high number of witnesses (71%) who had discussed the event went on to mistakenly recall items acquired during the discussion.
evaluation points
for misleading information
- real life application
- demand characteristics
point
real life application
evaluation point
Research on misleading information is valuable due to its crucial practical applications in the real world, where the consequences of inaccuracies in EWT can be very serious. For example, Loftus suggests that the distortion effect of leading questions on memory requires careful consideration by police officers during eyewitness interviews.
