PAPER 1 - MEMORY - eye witness testimony Flashcards
what is eyewitness testimony?
evidence given by a witness to a significant event
what errors can occur in any stages of memory?
- acquisition/encoding
- storage
- retrieval
what factors affect the accuracy of EWT?
- misleading information & post event discussion
- anxiety
what is misleading information?
usually takes the form of a question or statement to an eyewitness that wrongly implies that something happened when it didn’t
what type of experiment was the “barn and stop sign” study by Loftus?
controlled laboratory experiment
what did the findings of the “barn and stop sign” study suggest with regard to the introduction of misleading information after an event?
the misleading information caused most of the group to reconstruct their memories, making them believe things they hadnt actually seen
- can be absorbed into the actual memory
what can be concluded about the effect of misleading information on significant vs insignificant/peripheral details?
misleading information has more of an effect on insignificant/ peripheral details
why is it important to word questions carefully when obtaining EWT?
changes in words can create different severities and implications which may affect how people answer questions e.g. study by loftus and palmer
what was the study by loftus and palmer?
- showed participants 7 films of traffic accidents
- they then asked “how fast were the cars going when they (hit, smashed, bumped, collided or contacted) each other?”
- they then were asked what the average speed of the vehicles was
what were the findings by loftus and palmer?
verb estimated speed
smashed 40.3 mph
contacted 31.8mph
what are some strengths of the studies by loftus?
- control over variables (lab study)
- can establish cause (misleading information) and effect (effect on accuracy)
-can be repeated
what are some limitations of the studies by loftus?
- demand characteristics
- no real consequences
- missing element of surprise
- low ecological validity
- lower anxiety
what was the aim of the study by gabbert et al (2003)?
investigating the influence of co-witnesses on eyewitness memory
what was the procedure of the study by gabbert et al?
- young and old eyewitnesses watched a short film of a girl stealing a wallet
- they took part individually or in pairs
- pairs were led to believe they were watching the same film but each eye witness saw a different perspective, only one saw crime being committed
- they then discussed event together and did a questionnaire
what were the findings of the study by gabbert et al?
- 71% of eyewitnesses that discussed event with co-witness mistakenly recalled information they had not witnessed
- 60% who hadn’t actually witnessed the crime claimed she was guilty
- findings were similar between younger and older adults
what was the conclusion from the gabbert et al study?
post event discussion can contaminate an individuals recall of the event as they may incorporate the recollections of others into their own memory
what is reconstructive memory?
refers to a memory distorted by the individuals prior knowledge and expectations
what type of process is reconstructive memory?
passive process
what does bartlett argue about our memories?
when we create memories, we only store elements of the experience, to make sense of our memory we reconstruct the memory (fill in the gaps) based on our schema
- our memory is quite inaccurate
what is a schema?
a package of knowledge about something which is built up through our experience of the world
what is the core of Bartlett’s theory of our schema?
our prior knowledge and beliefs generate expectations which reconstruct memory
what do schema lead to reconstructive memory?
- we tend to ignore aspects that do not fit the currently activated schema
- schema allows us to store the main features without having to store the exact detail
- schema allows us to make sense of what we have seen/ heard by filling in gaps
- we distort memories to fit with out prior expectations
how does reconstructive memory fit in with EWT?
we are only likely to recall some details of an event, so fill in the goes with what would make sense according to our schema which makes the memory of the event reconstructed
what was the procedure of the Johnson and scott study?
- participants exposed to 1 of 2 situations
1. heard argument and saw a man run with pen covered in grease (low anxiety) or
2. heard argument but man was holding paper knife covered in blood (high anxiety)