Studies in the accuracy of eyewitness testimony Flashcards
What was Loftus and Palmer’s first experiment?
(1974)Forty-Five students are shown seven different traffic accidents. They then were asked a series of questions. One group has the question ‘how fast were the cars when they hit each other’, while the other five had different verbs.
The mean speeds for all these groups showed that the when the word contacted was used it was estimated ‘31.8 mph’ and when the word smashed was used ‘40.8 mph’. Showing that word choice changes peoples recollection.
What was Loftus and Palmer’s second experiment?
(1974) New participants were divided into three groups and watched an identical one minute card video. Group one were given the word smashed, group two were given hit and group three were not asked about speed.
A week later they were asked ten questions about what they saw, one of the questions was if there was broken glass. Those that were given ‘smashed’ had significantly more yes answers.
What was the other Loftus experiment?
Loftus et al (1978) showed two groups a red car stopping, one at a stop sign, the other at a yield sign. They then gave a questionnaire to both groups, half the questionnaires said it was Yield while the other said it was Stop. When shown pairs of slides in random order, one with a stop and one with yield 75% of participants who had consistent information identified correctly, while only 41% with the misleading question picked correctly.
This shows that misleading questions can effect recall.
What was Bekerian and Bowers experiment?
Bekerian and Bowers (1983) repeated Loftus et al’s (1978) experiment, except not making the slides presence random (correct followed by incorrect). They found that both groups then had the same degree of accuracy.
This indicates that it is the retrieval of the memories which is changed by misleading questions, not the storage.
What study conflicts with Loftus’s research?
Yuille and Cutshall (1986) interviewed 13 people who had witnessed an armed robbery in Canada on what they saw. The Interview took place 4 months after the crime and included two misleading questions.
Despite this, the witnesses had an accurate recall which matched their initial detailed reports. This suggests post-event information may not affect memory in real-life EWT.
What is Eyewitness testimony?
The Evidence provided in court by a person who witnessed a crime, with a view to identifying the perpetrator of the crime. The accuracy of eyewitness recall may be affected during initial encoding, subsequent storage and eventual retrieval.
What is Misleading information?
A question that, either by its form or content, suggests to the witness what answer is desired or leads them to the desired answer.
