misleading information

Question 1

What is a leading question?

Answer 1

-a question that suggests to the witness what answer is desired, or leads them to the desired answer.

Question 2

How many key studies are there investigating Leading Questions? Who are they by?

Answer 2

-2
-Loftus and Palmer

Question 3

What was the procedure of Loftus and Palmer’s first experiment?

Answer 3

-45 Participants (students)
- Participants watched 7 videos of a traffic accident, then received a questionnaire.
-The critical question (a leading question) was “About how fast were the cars going when they ____?”. The verbs ‘smashed’, ‘collided’, ‘bumped, ‘hit’ or ‘contacted’ replaced the blank

Question 4

What were the IV and DV of Loftus and Palmer’s first experiment?

Answer 4

• IV: Verb used in the leading question, varying in intensity
• DV: Estimate of the Speed of the car (mph)

Question 5

What were the findings of Loftus and Palmers first experiment?

Answer 5

-The phrasing of the question influenced speed estimates
-Smashed was the highest with an estimate of 40.8 (41) mph
-Contacted was the lowest with an estimate of 31.8 (32) mph

Question 6

What was the procedure of Loftus and Palmer’s second experiment?

Answer 6

-150 students in various group sizes
- Participants were shown a video of a car crash, then were given a questionnaire.
-The critical question asked “About how fast were the cars going when they ____ into each other?”.
-50 ppts had the verb “smashed”, another 50 ppts had the verb “hit”, and the remaining 50 were not asked this question.
-One week later another questionnaire was given in which the critical question was “Did you see any broken glass?” (there was no broken glass present).

Question 7

What were the IV and DV of Loftus and Palmer’s second experiment?

Answer 7

-IV: The verb used in the question
-DV: Participants’ answers when asked if they saw broken glass

Question 8

What were the findings of Loftus and Palmers second experiment?

Answer 8

-Those asked the critical question with the verb “smashed” were more likely to answer yes to seeing broken glass
-For the condition with the word ‘Hit’ 7 answered ‘yes’ and 43 answered ‘no’
-For the condition with the word ‘Smashed’ 16 answered ‘yes’ and 34 answered ‘no’
-In the control 6 answered ‘yes’ and 44 answered ‘no’

Question 9

What is Post Event Discussion?

Answer 9

-When co-witnesses to a crime discuss it with one another

Question 10

What are the ways that Post Event Discussion cant effect EWT?

Answer 10

-Memory Contamination
-Memory Conformity

Question 11

What is memory conformity?

Answer 11

-witnesses often go along with each other either to win social approval or because they believe others are right and they are wrong-the actual memory is unchanged.

Question 12

What is memory contamination?

Answer 12

-when co-witnesses to the crime discuss it with each other the EWTs may become altered/ distorted because they combine information with their own memory

Question 13

Who studied the effects of Post Event Discussion on EWT?

Answer 13

Gabbert et al (2003)

Question 14

What was the procedure of Gabbert et al’s study?

Answer 14

-Participants studied in pairs. -Each participant watched a video of the same crime, but filmed from different points of view, meaning that each participant could see elements in the event that the other could not.
-Both participants then discussed what they had seen before individually completing a recall test.

Question 15

What were the IV and the DV of Gabbert’s study?

Answer 15

-IV: The POV the participants watched the crime from
-DV: Results from recall test

Question 16

What were the findings of Gabbert’s study?

Answer 16

-71% of participants mistakenly recalled aspects of the event that they did not see in the video, but had picked up in discussion.
-In a control group where there was no discussion, the corresponding figure was 0%.
-This is evidence of memory conformity

Question 17

What are the strengths of research into misleading information?

Answer 17

-significant real world applications
-reliability of research support

Question 18

What are the limitations of research into misleading information?

Answer 18

-evidence that post event discussion actually alters EWT, weakening memory conformity explanation
-EWT is more accurate for some aspects of an event than for others, weakening the memory contamination explanation

Question 19

Explain the real world applications of research into misleading information?

Answer 19

-has important applications in the criminal justice system meaning that it can cause serious consequences
-Loftus believes that leading questions can have a large distorting effect on memory so police officers need to be cautious when interviewing eyewitnesses.
-Psychologists can be asked to act as expert witnesses in trials to explain the limits of EWT to juries.
-This is important because it shows that psychologists can help to improve the legal system works, helping to prevent miscarriages of justice.

Question 20

Explain the strength of misleading information that it has reliable research support?

Answer 20

-Loftus and Palmer’s studies researching leading questions have high reliability.
-Both Loftus and Palmer’s two studies show very similar results about the effect of misleading information on EWT (that a leading question can alter eyewitnesses’ memories of an event) which shows high external validity and good reliability as it shows that results are replicable and can be applied to other situations.
-Gabbert’s research also shows that misleading information (in this case, post event discussion) can affect eyewitnesses’ memories and EWT.
-Loftus and Palmer’s second experiment had a large sample of 150 students, making it representative.
-All studies are lab studies, meaning that researchers had a high level of control over variables, giving them high internal validity.
-A strength because there are multiple studies that provide strong evidence.

Question 21

Explain the limitation of the memory conformity explanation that there is evidence that post event discussion actually alters EWT.

Answer 21

-Skagerberg and Wright showed their participants film clips.
-There were two different versions (e.g. the mugger’s hair was dark brown in one but light brown in the other) and participants discussed the clips in pairs, each having seen different versions.
-They often did not report what they had seen in the clips or had heard from co-witnesses, but a blend of the two (e.g. a common answer for the muggers hair was medium brown).
-This suggests that the memory itself is distorted through contamination by misleading post-event discussion, rather than the result of memory conformity.

Question 22

Explain the limitation of the “memory contamination” explanation that EWT is more accurate for some aspects of an event than for others?

Answer 22

Sutherland and Hayne showed participants a video clip.
-When participants were later asked misleading questions their recall was more accurate for central details of that event than for peripheral ones.
-Presumably the participants’ attention was focused on central features of the event and these memories were relatively resistant to misleading information.
-This suggests that the original memories for central details survived and were not distorted