Misleading Information Flashcards
AO3 research to support
Research to support post event discussion affecting the accuracy of EWT was conducted by Skagerberg and wright they showed participants two versions of a clip of a mugging one in which a muggers hair was dark brown and in the other the muggers hair was light brown the participants discussed the clips in pairs each having seen different versions it was found that often they did not report what they had heard from their co witness but rather it was a blend of the two suggesting The mugger had medium brown hair rather than dark or light. Therefore this supports ped affecting the accuracy of EWT because it supports that memory contamination during ped does occur distorting the witness of EWT rather than just conforming to their co witness response
AO3
However much of the research investigating post event discussion and its effect on the accuracy of EWT may be affected by demand characteristics this is because the research is conducted in a controlled environment with unrealistic tasks such as watching video clips of crimes research has found that participants usually want to be helpful and not let the researcher down so it is not possible that participants from the research are able to pick up on clues from the task and the experimenter and change their responses to fit the aims of the research e.g changing their responses to Mach yeh co witness after discussing the clip this would lower the internal validity of research investigating ped as the affects of discussing a crime on the accuracy of EWT are not being accurately measured
What is meant by post event discussion
Post event discussion is where witnesses of an event discuss their accounts with each other
How does this affect the accuracy of EWT
Post event discussion affects the accuracy of EWT in two ways memory contamination and memory conformity
What is the definition of memory contamination
When co-witnesses to a crime discuss it with each other their EWT may become altered or disorted. This is because they combine misleading information from other witnesses with their own memories suggesting that their memories of the event have changed because of post event discussion
What is the definition of memory conformity
Witnesses go along with each other either to win social approval (NSI) or because they believe the other witness is right and they are wrong (ISI). However unlike with memory contamination the memory remains unchanged but the accuracy of recall has been affected
