Eyewitness testimony is when evidence is used in court, concerning the identity of someone who has committed a crime.
Misleading information includes:
leading questions
post-eventdiscussion
Misleading information evaluation: strength
Practical applications, research into factors affecting accuracy of EWT has informed police how to effectively interview eyewitnesses in order to avoid leading questions. This means that misleading information has important uses in the criminal justice system.
A limitation of misleading information is that the practical applications of EWT may be impacted by methodological issues. Loftus & Palmer's ppts watched clips in a lab which is very different to witnessing the real life event. This means that EWT may be more dependable than many studies suggest when it has real consequences.
A limitation of misleading information is that there is challenging evidence for memory conformity. Skagerberg & Wright found that ppts' memory was distorted through contamination by misleading post-event discussion rather than being altered as a result of memory conformity. This supports memory contamination as an explanation by suggesting that post-event discussion actually alters EWT.
