Accuracy of eyewitness testimony: Misleading information

• How is demand characteristics a limitation of the research into misleading information?

  • Zargosa and McCloskey (1989) argued that many answers participants gave in lab studies of EWT are a result of demand characteristics
  • usually do not want to let the researcher down and appear unhelpful
  • if they are asked a question they don’t know the answer to they guess : especially if it’s a yes/no question
• How is artificial tasks a limitation to the research into misleading information?


  • participants watch film clips of car accidents (very different experience from witnessing an accident)
  • clips lack stress: evidence that emotions can influence memory
  • may tell us less about how leading questions effect EWT
• 2 Limitations of the research into misleading information

  • artificial tasks
  • Demand characteristics
• How is real-life application a strength of the research into misleading information?


  • important practical uses in the real world, consequences of inaccurate EWT can be serious
  • Loftus believes that leading questions have such a distorting effect on memory that police need to be careful how they phrase their questions
  • psychologists believe that they can make a difference: improving he way the legal system works and appearing in court as expert witnesses
• 1 Strength of research into misleading information


  Real-life application
• What is Conformity theory?


  EW memories are not actually distorted by post event discussion, they change to win social approval
• What is source monitoring theory?


  Memories of the event are genuinely distorted- the EW can recall the information about the event, but they can’t recall where it came from (source distortion)
• Gabbert et al (2003) conclusion


  - They go along with each other to win social approval because they believe the other witnesses are right and they are wrong (memory conformity )

  - source monitoring theory

  - conformity theory
• Gabbert et al (2003) findings


  - 71% recalled aspects of the crime that they didn't see in the video

  - control group (no discussion)
• Gabbert et al (2003) procedure


  - participants were put into pairs

  - watched the same video of a crime but from different POVs

  - discussed with pair
• who conducted the post event discussion study?


  Gabbert et al (2003)
• What is post-event discussion?


  Eye witness' memories become contaminated with information from other witnesses
• What did Loftus and Palmer's find about how misleading information alters memory?

  misleading information can alter the way memory is retrieved and stored
• Loftus and Palmer (1974) conclusion:


  - Memory storage actually can manipulate by misleading information ( specifically leading questions)- this leads eyewitness testimonies to be unreliable
• Loftus and Palmer's 2nd experiment Findings

  Participate who had the word ‘smashed’ in their questions about speed were more likely to say they had seen broken glass than participants rather then ‘hit’ or no question about speed
• Loftus and Palmers (1974) 2nd experiment


  3 groups: smashed, hit , control

  • a week later answered another questionnaire: “Did you see any broken glass?”
• Loftus and Palmer (1974) experiment 1 findings


  The speed estimates of participants increased with the intensity of the verb.

  
• What was the critical question in Loftus and Palmer’s 1st experiment?


  “About how fast we’re the cars going when they hit each other ”

  • smashed, collided, Bumped, hit, contacted
• Loftus and Palmers (1974) procedure?

  - They arranged for 5 groups of participants to watch clips of car accidents and then gave the, questions about the accident

  - 45 American students, 7 films

  - Each group had different verb in the 'critical questions
• What was Loftus and Palmer’s (1974) aim?


  Do leading questions affect of an eyewitness' immediate recalll?
• Who conducted the study on Leading questions?

  Loftus and Palmer (1974)
• What are the 2 parts of misleading information?


  - leadings questions

  - post event discussion
• How can the accuracy of eyewitness testimonies be effected?


  - misleading information

  - anxiety
• What is an eyewitness testimony?


  The ability of people to remember the details of events such as accidents and crimes, that they have seen .