PAPER 1 - MEMORY - eye witness testimony

Question 1

what is eyewitness testimony?

Answer 1

evidence given by a witness to a significant event

Question 2

what errors can occur in any stages of memory?

Answer 2

• acquisition/encoding
• storage
• retrieval

Question 3

what factors affect the accuracy of EWT?

Answer 3

• misleading information & post event discussion
• anxiety

Question 4

what is misleading information?

Answer 4

usually takes the form of a question or statement to an eyewitness that wrongly implies that something happened when it didn’t

Question 5

what type of experiment was the “barn and stop sign” study by Loftus?

Answer 5

controlled laboratory experiment

Question 6

what did the findings of the “barn and stop sign” study suggest with regard to the introduction of misleading information after an event?

Answer 6

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

Question 7

what can be concluded about the effect of misleading information on significant vs insignificant/peripheral details?

Answer 7

misleading information has more of an effect on insignificant/ peripheral details

Question 8

why is it important to word questions carefully when obtaining EWT?

Answer 8

changes in words can create different severities and implications which may affect how people answer questions e.g. study by loftus and palmer

Question 9

what was the study by loftus and palmer?

Answer 9

• 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

Question 10

what were the findings by loftus and palmer?

Answer 10

verb estimated speed
smashed 40.3 mph
contacted 31.8mph

Question 11

what are some strengths of the studies by loftus?

Answer 11

• control over variables (lab study)
• can establish cause (misleading information) and effect (effect on accuracy)
  -can be repeated

Question 12

what are some limitations of the studies by loftus?

Answer 12

• demand characteristics
• no real consequences
• missing element of surprise
• low ecological validity
• lower anxiety

Question 13

what was the aim of the study by gabbert et al (2003)?

Answer 13

investigating the influence of co-witnesses on eyewitness memory

Question 14

what was the procedure of the study by gabbert et al?

Answer 14

• 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

Question 15

what were the findings of the study by gabbert et al?

Answer 15

• 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

Question 16

what was the conclusion from the gabbert et al study?

Answer 16

post event discussion can contaminate an individuals recall of the event as they may incorporate the recollections of others into their own memory

Question 17

what is reconstructive memory?

Answer 17

refers to a memory distorted by the individuals prior knowledge and expectations

Question 18

what type of process is reconstructive memory?

Answer 18

passive process

Question 19

what does bartlett argue about our memories?

Answer 19

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

Question 20

what is a schema?

Answer 20

a package of knowledge about something which is built up through our experience of the world

Question 21

what is the core of Bartlett’s theory of our schema?

Answer 21

our prior knowledge and beliefs generate expectations which reconstruct memory

Question 22

what do schema lead to reconstructive memory?

Answer 22

• 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

Question 23

how does reconstructive memory fit in with EWT?

Answer 23

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

Question 24

what was the procedure of the Johnson and scott study?

Answer 24

• 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)

Question 25

what were the findings of the Johnson and scott study?

Answer 25

• those witnessing the man holding the pen accurately identified the person 49% of the time
• those witnessing the man with bloodstained knife only successful 33% of time

Question 26

what are the strengths of the johnson and scott study?

Answer 26

• controlled laboratory experiment
• control over extraneous variables
• more confident in establishing cause and effect between anxiety and memory recall

Question 27

what are the limitations of the johnson and scott study?

Answer 27

• high anxiety situation still may not be representative of level of anxiety in a real life crime
• no real consequences
• demand characteristics

Question 28

what was the procedure of the Yuille and Cutshall study?

Answer 28

• conducted a real life crime
• thief attempted to steal from a gun shop
• some witnesses were close to the incident while some were further away
• several months later, 13 witnesses were interviewed and introduced to misleading information

Question 29

what were the findings of the Yuille and Cutshall study?

Answer 29

• misleading information had no effect on accuracy
• still gave accurate accounts several months later, with distance producing no differences in accuracy which was:
  83% for actions, 76% for people, 90% for objects

Question 30

what are the strengths of the Yuille and Cutshall study?

Answer 30

• natural setting (real-life crime)
  -high ecological validity, able to generalise findings
• real life testimonies
• more ethical

Question 31

what are some limitations of the Yuille and Cutshall study?

Answer 31

• lack of control over what people witness, reducing accuracy
• lack of control over other variables
• unable to establish whether anxiety causes inaccuracy of memory

Question 32

what conclusions can we draw to the Yuille and Cutshall study?

Answer 32

higher anxiety in real life situations increases accuracy of recall in eyewitness testimony

Question 33

what conclusions can we draw to the Johnson and Scott study?

Answer 33

higher anxiety in artificial situation decreases accuracy of recall in eyewitness testimony

Question 34

what was the procedure of the Christiansen and Hubinette study?

Answer 34

• obtained 58 witnesses that had witnesses 22 genuine bank robberies
• some witnesses has been onlookers whereas some had been directly threatened in the robberies

Question 35

what were the findings of the Christiansen and Hubinette study?

Answer 35

• victims directly involved were more accurate on their recall and remembered more detail
• e\superior recall even after 15 month interval