EWT misleading info eval

• EWT misleading info eval counterpoint to loftus

  The tasks are artificial:

  A limitation of Loftus and Palmer's study is that their participants watched film clips of car accidents

  This is a very diff experience from witnessing a real accident, mainly bc such clips lack the stress of a real accident

  There is some evidence that emotions can have an influence on memory

  For e.g, Foster et al found that if participants thought they were watching a real-life robbery their identification of the robber was more accurate

  Therefore researchers may be too pessimistic abt the effects of MI- EWT may be more reliable than studies suggest
• EWT misleading info eval real world application

  Real-world application in the criminal justice system

  The consequences of accurate EWT are serious. Loftus (1975) argues that police officers should be careful in phrasing qs to witnesses because of distorting effects

  Psychologists are sometimes expert witnesses in trials and explain limits of EWT to juries

  Therefore, psychologists can improve how the legal system works and protect the innocent from faulty convictions based on unreliable EWT

  Yuille and Cutshall found evidence of greater accuracy of EWT in real life

  Witnesses to an armed robbery in Canada gave very accurate reports of the crime 4 months after the event even though they had initially been given 2 LQs

  This suggests that MI may have less influence on real-life EWT
• EWT misleading info eval limitation individual differences

  There is evidence that older people are less accurate than younger people when giving EW reports

  For e.g, Anastasi and Rhodes found that people in age groups 18-25 and 35-45 were more accurate than people in the group 55-78 years

  However, all age groups were more accurate when identifying people of their own age group (known as age bias)
• EWT misleading info eval limitation demand characteristics

  Demand characteristics- Zaragoza and McCloskey argue that many answers participants give in lab studies of EWT are the result of demand characteristics

  Participants usually do not want to let the researcher down, and want to appear helpful and attentive

  So when they are asked a question they do not know the answer to, they guess, especially if it's a yes / no question