What is meant by “eyewitness testimony”?
Legal term referring to an account given by people of an event they have witnessed such as accidents and crimes they have observed themselves.
What is meant by “misleading information”?
Incorrect information given to an eyewitness usually after the event which distorts what people remember about the event which can be done through leading questions and post-event discussion.
What is meant by “leading questions”?
Questions that are phrased in a certain way to suggest a particular answer.
What is meant by “post-event discussion”?
Occurs when there is more than one witness to an event where witnesses may discuss what they have seen with other co-witnesses or other people.
What experiments research leading questions and when?
- Loftus and Palmer’s experiment 1 in 1974.
- Loftus and Palmer’s experiment 2 in 1974.
What was the aim of Loftus and Palmer’s leading questions experiment 1?
Examine effect of leading questions on the accuracy of eyewitness.
What is the procedure of Loftus and Palmer’s leading questions experiment 1?
- 45 students were shown short video clips of car accidents.
- all were asked “how fast was the car going when they … each other?”
- each group was given a different verb to fill in the blank
↳ e.g. of words used were smashed, collided, bumped, hit or contacted.
- each group was given a different verb to fill in the blank
- all were asked “how fast was the car going when they … each other?”
What are the findings of Loftus and Palmer’s leading questions experiment 1?
When word smashed was used – 40.8mph - participants estimated the cars were travelling much faster than when the verb contacted was used – 31.8mph.
What is the conclusion of Loftus and Palmer’s leading questions experiment 1?
Accuracy of EWT can be affected by leading questions and that a single word has the potential to significantly distort accuracy of judgements.
What was the aim of Loftus and Palmer’s leading questions experiment 2?
Examine effect of leading questions on the accuracy of eyewitness.
What is the procedure of Loftus and Palmer’s leading questions experiment 2?
- 150 student participants were shown a short film that showed a multi-vehicle car accident.
- asked questions about it.
- split into 3 groups with 50 in each group.
- one group was asked: “how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?”
- second was asked: “how fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?”
- third was not asked about the speed of the vehicles as they were the control group.
- one week later all participants returned and were asked: “did you see any broken glass?”
- there was no broken glass in the film.
- one week later all participants returned and were asked: “did you see any broken glass?”
- third was not asked about the speed of the vehicles as they were the control group.
- second was asked: “how fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?”
- one group was asked: “how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?”
- split into 3 groups with 50 in each group.
- asked questions about it.
What are the findings of Loftus and Palmer’s leading questions experiment 2?
Verb used in original questions influenced whether the participants thought they had sen broken glass where the critical verb altered their memory.
What is the conclusion of Loftus and Palmer’s leading questions experiment 2?
Leading questions can have distorting effect on EWT.
Why do leading questions affect EWT?
- response bias
↳ person’s schema for the verb influences their answer.
➝ leading questions does not affect their memory but choice of answer. - substitution
↳ memory has been imagined and they genuinely believe these changes therefore the leading question actually distorts memory.
What is the problem with post-event discussion?
Combines (mis)information from other witnesses with their own memories.
What experiment researches post-event discussion and when?
Gabbert et al’s in 2003.
What was the aim of Gabbert et al’s PED experiment?
Examine effect of post-event discussion affected accuracy of EWT.
What is the procedure of Gabbert et al’s PED experiment?
- 60 students from a university and 60 adults from the local community.
- each participant watched a video from a crime scene but filmed from different points of view.
- either tested individually (control group) or in pairs (co-witness group).
- those in co-witness group were told that they had watched the same video however they had seen different perspectives of the same crime.
- completed a recall test testing their memory of the event.
- those in co-witness group were told that they had watched the same video however they had seen different perspectives of the same crime.
- either tested individually (control group) or in pairs (co-witness group).
- each participant watched a video from a crime scene but filmed from different points of view.
What are the findings of Gabbert et al’s PED experiment?
- 71% of participants recalled aspects of the film that they hadn’t seen but picked up in discussion.
- in control group 0% recalled information they hadn’t seen.
What is the conclusion of Gabbert et al’s PED experiment?
Suggests witnesses often go along with each other known as witness conformity.
Why does PED affect EWT?
- memory contamination
↳ memories become altered or distorted because they combine information from other witnesses with their own memories. - memory conformity
↳ witnesses go along with each other to win social approval or because they think others are right.
What is a strength of misleading information?
- useful real-life application.
What are the weaknesses of misleading information?
- evidence against substitution.
- demand characteristics.
- tasks are artificial.
What is the evaluation of misleading information - useful real-life application?
POINT - one strength is the practical importance it has played in the real world.
EVIDENCE - Loftus (1975) found leading questions can have a distorting effect on memory. Recent DNA exoneration cases have confirmed warnings of relying on eyewitnesses. Mistaken eyewitness identification was the largest factor contributing to the conviction of innocent people (Wells and Olson, 2003).
EXPLANATION - criminal justice system relies on eyewitness testimonies when prosecuting and investigating criminals therefore police are informed to not use leading questions as they can distort their account of the crime or accident.
LINK - helps reduce number of wrongful convictions and improve the criminal justice system.
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approaches in psychology.81
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approaches in psychology - cognitive approach.37
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biopsychology - nervous system n endocrine system.49
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biopsychology - types of neurons n synaptic transmission.35
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biopsychology - localisation of brain function.36
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biopsychology - split-brain research n hemispheric lateralisation.16
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biopsychology - investigating the brain.21
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biopsychology - circadian rhythms.24
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biopsychology - infradian n ultradian rhythms.31
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biopsychology - endogenous pacemakers n exogenous zeitgebers.28
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approaches in psychology - keywords in comparison.8
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approaches in psychology - origins of psychology.30
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approaches in psychology - behaviourism: the learning approach.85
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approaches in psychology - behaviourism: social learning theory.38
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approaches in psychology - cognitive approach.18
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memory - the multi-store model of memory.51
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memory - the working memory model.41
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memory - types of long-term memory.34
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memory - explanations of forgetting: interference theory.43
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memory - explanations of forgetting: retrieval failure.40
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memory - eyewitness testimonies: misleading information.43
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memory - factors affecting accuracy of EWT: anxiety.36
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memory - cognitive interview.32
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research methods - types of experiments.17
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research methods - sampling.20
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research methods - ethical issues.17
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research methods - pilot studies, single-blind n double-blind procedures.9
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research methods - observational design.22
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research methods - self-report techniques n design.19
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research methods - correlations.18
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research methods - descriptive statistics.26
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research methods - types of data.23
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research methods - graphs n distributions.19
