Factors affecting accuracy of EWT - misleading info

• Eyewitness testimony (EWT)


  The ability of people to remember the details of events, such as accidents and crimes, which they have witnessed
• Accuracy of EWT can be affected by factors such as reading information and misleading information
• Misleading information


  Research on leading questions
• Leading questions


  1. The wording of the question may influence you to give a certain answer

  2. Police fears may lead them to want you to give a particular answer
• Leading questions


  • How fast were the cars going when they hit each other?
  • How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?
• The verb used in the question

  Affects the eyewitness's estimate of the car's speed
• The leading question biased the eyewitnesses' recall of the event
• Substitution explanation


  The wording of the question has no real effect on the participants' memories, but just influences how they decide to answer
• When a participant gets a leading question using the word 'smashed'


  This encourages them to choose a higher speed estimate
• Loftus and Palmer's second experiment supported the substitution explanation, showing that the wording of a leading question changes the participants' memory of the film clip
• Participants who had originally heard 'smashed' were later more likely to report seeing the broken glass (there was none) than those who heard 'hit'
• The critical verb altered their memory of the incident