Misleading Information: Post-Event Discussion Flashcards
What is Post-Event Discussion?
When witnesses discuss what they saw after an event
What are the two explanations for how Post-Event Discussion affects the accuracy of eyewitness testimonies?
- Memory Contamination
- Memory Conformity
What is Memory Contamination?
When witnesses combine co-witness (mis)information regarding the event with their own memories
What is Memory Conformity?
When witnesses go along with each other and conform with each other’s accounts of the event despite their actual memory being unchanged
Which explanation for how Post-Event Discussion affects the accuracy of eyewitness testimonies is subconscious?
Memory Contamination
Give two reasons why eyewitnesses may submit to Memory Conformity
- To win social approval
- Because they assume they’re wrong and the other co-witnesses are correct
Describe Gabbert’s Study into the affects of Post-Event Discussion
- Paired participants watched a video of a girl stealing a wallet from different POVs
- In each pair, only one participant actually witnessed the girl committing the crime
- Participants then discussed what they had watched
- He compared his findings to a control group that didn’t engage in post-event discussion
What percentage of participants in Gabbert’s Study into the affects of Post-Event Discussion recalled information they had not actually witnessed?
71%, compared to the control group that recalled no information they hadn’t witnessed
In Gabbert’s Experiment into the affects of Post-Event Discussion what percentage of participants said the girl was guilty despite not having seen her commit the crime from their POV?
60%
How have studies into the affects of Misleading Information been criticised?
- Their use of artificial situations and materials
- Their inability to mimic the emotional impact of witnessing a crime
