EWT: misleading info

• Memory conformity (gabbert et al)

  Witnesses go along with each other to win social approval or because they believe the other witnesses are right
• GABBERT ET AL STUDY, investigates the effect of post event discussion on eye witness memory

  - paired participants watched a video of the same crime, but filmed so each participant could see elements in the event that others couldn't

  - both participants discussed what they'd seen on the video before completing recall test

  - 71% of participants mistakenly recalled aspects of the event that they didn't see in the video but picked up on during the discussion from before the recall

  - in the control group, there was no discussion and therefore no errors

  - research may have been affected by demand characteristics, participants may not want to let the researcher down so they guess which leads to inaccurately recorded information they heard during discussion

  - may be individual differences, older people are less accurate than younger people
• what are the four ways to improve ewt

  - report everything, reinstate context, reverse the order, change perspectives
• Report Everything- improving ewt


  Encouraging witnesses to share all details, no matter how minor.
• Reinstate the Context- improving ewt

  Witnesses mentally return to the crime scene.
• Reverse the Order- improving ewt


  Recalling events in a non-chronological sequence.
• Change Perspective- improving ewt


  Witnesses recall events from different viewpoints.
• Context-Dependent Forgetting


  Difficulty recalling information without the original context.
• strengths of cognitive interview

  + some elements are useful

  + effectiveness of enhanced ci, studies like this indicate there's real practical benefits to the police using enhanced version of ci
• limitations of cognitive interview

  -its time consuming, so its unlikely the 'proper' version of ci will be utilised as police says it will

  -police say it needs more time to establish rapport and allow witnesses to relax (more accuracy)
• leading q- response bias

  wording of q has NO ENDURING EFFECT on EW memory
• leading q- substitution explanation

  wording of q DOES affect EW memory