Eye witness testimony- misleading information

• define eye witness testimony


  the evidence given in a court room or in a police investigation by someone whose witnessed a crime or an accident
• what 3 factors affect eye witness testimony

  anxiety. misleading questions. post event discussion
• what was the procedure of loftus and palmer


  45 students shown 7 clips of cars crashing. Split into 5 groups with the question how fast did were the cars going when they collided/ smashed/ bumped/ hit/ contacted. A different verb used for each group
• what were the findings of Loftus and palmer study


  verb smashed raised the estimated more than contacted so the phrasing of the questions influences estimated which affects accuracy on eye witness testimony
• What was the procedure of loftus and zanni study


  100 university students shown clips of car crashes and asked the same question as the other study and one of two questions. did you see the broken glass and did you see broken glass
• what were the findings of loftus and zanni


  for question 1: 17% said yes for question 2: 7% said yes meaning the changing of a simple word in a leading question can alter memory which affects eye witness testimony
• what is post event discussion


  discussions between several witnesses which can influence accuracy of each witnesses recall of events
• define conformity


  when an individual changes their behaviour or beliefs to fit in with those of a group due to group pressure
• why does post event discussion lead to conformity


  social approval. wanting to be right. wanting to be helpful
• what was the procedure of Gabbert study on post event discussion


  60 university students and 60 adults watched a clip of a girl stealing and were either tested individually (control group) or in pairs (co-witness group). Co witness group told they all watched the same video but only one person actually saw the girl steal
• what were the findings to Gabberts study


  71% in co-witness group said they saw the girl steal although they didn't. 60% said the girl was guilty despite not seeing her meaning witnesses go along with each other as conformity as they believe others are right
• whats a strength

  useful real life applications: important real world issues where consequences of inaccuracy of EWT can be serious like police need to be careful when wording questions.
• limitation of this


  tasks are artificial: studies used film clips which is different to real life experience so artificial tasks tells us little on how leading questions affect eye witness testimony of real crimes
• limitation of this


  demand characteristics: many answers participants give due to demand characteristics, they want to appear helpful so when they don't know the answer they guess
• limitation of this


  Individual differences: older people are less accurate, and all age groups are more accurate in identifying someone their age. Studies usually use young people