eye witness testimony

• what is an eye witness testimony

  refers to the ability of people to remember the details of events such as accidents and crimes which they themselves have observed
• what are the 3 factors that can affect eye witness testimony

  leading questions, post event discussion and anxiety
• what is misleading infomation

  refers to incorrect infomation that is given to the eyewitness after the event
• what are the forms that misleading infomation can take place

  leading questions and post event discussion between co witnesses and other people
• what are leading questions

  questions which point to a certain answer because of how they are phrased
• who conducted a study for leading questions

  Loftus and palmer
• what did loftus and palmer do in their study

  45 ps watched film clips of car accidents and then gave an estimate about the speed at which the car was travelling. they were asked "approximately how fast were the cars going when they ... each other?" there were 5 groups of ps and each group was asked the question with a different verb
• what were the 5 different verbs in loftus and palmers study

  • contacted
  • bumped
  • hit
  • collided
  • smashed
• what was the mean estimate for each verb in loftus and palmers study

  • contacted - 31.8mph
  • bumped - 34.0mph
  • hit - 38.1pmh
  • collided - 39.3mph
  • smashed - 40.8mph
• what were the results of loftus and palmers study

  The results show that those people who were given the verb smashed gave the highest mean estimate of 40.8mph, compared to those who were given the verb contacted, where the lowest mean estimate was 31.8mph showing leading questions do affect recall
• when did loftus and palmer conduct a follow up study

  1 week later
• what did loftus and pamler do in their follow up study

  the ps who had been given the verb smashed were asked "was there any broken glass?"
• was there any broken glass in loftus and pamlers study

  no
• what were the results loftus and palmers follow up study

  there was actually no broken glass but the verb smashed had changed the ps memory of the incident this is know as the substitution explanation where the wording of a question does affect eyewitness memory it interferes with its original memory distorting its accuracy
• what is a limitation of leading questions (PEEL) (artificial material)

  P - a limitaion of loftus and palmers study is that it used artificial materials

  E - the 45 ps loftus and palmers watched a video of a car crash and therefore did not experience the real life emotions emotions people experience during car crashes and crimes so the results may be different as they are in a different state

  E - EG// other research have found that witnesses of a traumatic real armed robbery had a very accurate recall even after 4 months

  L - therefore the results of Loftus and palmers study is invalids
• what is a strength of leading questions (PEE) (real life app)

  P - a strength is that research into misleading infomation has real life application

  E - research into misleading infomation is useful for the police as misleading infomation ca lead to incorrect eye witness testimony

  E - therefore the police must be very mindful and careful when questioning eye witnesses as if they are given misleading infomation or asked a leading question it can result in incorrect eye witness evidence and possibly wrongful convictions
• what is a strength of leading questions (L) (real life app)

  L - this suggests research into EWT is an area where psychologist can make an important difference to the lives of real people such as improving how the legal system works
• what is a limitation of leading questions (PEEL) (demand characteristics)

  P -a limitation is that lab studies of EWT suffer from demand characteristics

  E - during an EWT ps may be nervous and unsure therefore if asked a leading question they may agree even though they know its false as they think that is what the experimenter wants them to do

  E - EG// ps might be asked " did you see the bleu car?" even if there was no blue car in the film they may still agree to please the experimenter

  L - this suggests that findings may not be valid in EWT research studies intend to measure the accuracy of EW memory but the answers eye witnesses give may not actually represent their memories
• what are post event discussions

  when co-witnesses to a crime/event discuss it with each other, their eye witness testimonies may become contaminated
• who conducted a study about post event discussion

  gabbert et al
• what did gabbert et al do

  paired ps watched a video of the same crime but it had been filmed so each ps could see elements in the event that the others could not both ps then discussed what they had seen on the video before individually completing a test of recall
• what were the results of gabbert et al

  71% of the ps mistakenly recalled aspects of the event that they could not possibly have seen in the video, but had picked up in the post event discussion and in a control group where there was no post event discussion there was 0% mistaken recall
• what is the conclusion of gabbert et al study

  this suggests that recall of witnesses is affected by post event discussion and often witnesses go along with each other for social approval or because they believe others may be right and have better recall then them
• what is informational

  this is about infomation, a desire to be right, looking for infomation, unsure if you are right, consider others as potentially more knowledgeable
• what is normative

  this is about norms, a desire to be linked by others and not look foolish, not stand out pr be rejected or different
• what is a limitaion of PED (PEEL) (artificial materials)

  P - one limitation is that gabbert used video clips like loftus and palmer so artificial materials were used again

  E - in real life accidents people experience anxiety and stress which can affect recall however ps watching a video do no experience the same amount of stress and anxiety so could have a different recall

  E - EG// other researchers have found that witnesses of a traumatic real armed robbery where they had experience high levels of stress, had very accurate recall after 4 months

  L - this suggests such artificial research about hoe PED affect EWT is not very useful
• what is a limitation of PED (PEEL) (external validity)

  P - another limitation is that gabbert's research lacks external validity

  E - Foster et al argue that what you remember as an eyewitness can have important consequences in the real world, but the same is not true in research studies.

  E - Real eyewitnesses search their memory with more effort because their testimony may lead to a successful conviction

  (or wrongful if inaccurate). This is not true in research studies.

  L - therefore EWT may be more accurate in the real world because of the seriousness with which eyewitnesses undertake their role.
• what is a strength of PED (PEEL) (real life app)

  P - a strength is that such research into misleading infomation has real life applications

  E - when a crime happens police will separate eye witnesses as quick as possible to prevent PED between them and therefore prevent misleading questions

  E - EG// if people are eye witnesses to a crime and have PED they may discuss infomation they did not see such as "did you see the size of the knife it was a big one wasn't it?" then the eye witness may recall this to the police despite having not seen the knife

  L - therefore PED can lead to misleading infomation and possibly incorrect EWT
• what is a limitation of PED (PEEL) (demand characteristics)

  P - a limitation is that lab studies of EWT suffer from demand characteristics

  E - in PED the co-witnesses can discuss what they have found if someone shares infomation others didn't see it may change the EWT of others as they don't want to be incorrect

  E - EG// if one witness see a knife and the other didn't they may change their memory to include a knife as they believe it is what is expected of them and correct

  L - therefore EWT could be incorrect and invalid as PED could interfere with what the person thought they saw and therefore lead to misleading infomation
• what anxiety have a positive or negative affect on EWT

  both
• what do real life events often have

  real life events such as violent crimes often have a high anxiety content that can greatly affect recall
• what is a criticism of EWT

  a criticism of EWT research is that it often uses artificial scenario's that have no emotional involvement for witnesses
• how does anxiety have a negative effect on recall

  anxiety creates physiological arousal in the body which prevents us pay attention to important cues, so recall is worse
• what is one suggesting for why anxiety has a negative impact on recall

  the tunnel theory of memory
• what is the tunnel theory of memory

  this theory argues that a witness's attention narrows to focus on a weapon (weapon focus affect) because it is a source of anxiety
• who conducted a study on tunnel theory of memory

  johnson and scott
• what did johnson and scott do

  • ps sat in a waiting room believing they were going to take part in a lab study
  • each ps heard an arguement in the next room
  • low anxiety condition - a man then walked though the waiting roon carrying a pen with grease on his hands
  • high anxiety conidtion - a man then walked through the room holding a paper knife covered in blood
  • ps were later asked the man from a set of 50 photographs
• what were the results of the johnson and scotts study

  finding showed that 49% of ps in the low anxiety condition were able to identity him whereas only 33% of ps in the high anxiety conditions correctly identified him
• how does the tunnel theory explain the findings of johnson and scotts study

  this shows that anxiety can have a negative affect on recall as like the tunnel theory the ps focused on the weapons not the man
• what is limitation of the weapon focus effect (not relavant)

  P - a limitation is that the weapon focus effect may not be relevant, this is because the johnson and scott study may actually test surprise

  E - ps may be focus on the weapon because they are scared at what they see rather than because they are scared or anxious

  E - for example Pickel (1998) had someone walk through a barber shop holding a pair of scissors are considered a weapon they are expected in a barber shop

  L - this suggests weapons focus effect is due to understanding rather than anxiety or threat and therefore this tells us nothing specifically about the effects of anxiety on EWT