EWT

• Loftus and Palmer -leading questions

  Pps shown a fake car crash

  Asked: How fast were they going when they ..... ?

  Hit

  Collided

  Smashed

  Contacted
• Loftus and Palmer - leading questions findings

  Smashed - 41 mph

  Contacted - 32 mph
• Loftus and Palmer - Broken glass

  Pps asked 3 groups:

  • 'smashed'
  • 'hit'
  • no speed suggestion

  Did you see any broken glass?
• Loftus and Palmer - Broken glass findings

  ‘smashed’ group - were more likely to say that they had seen broken glass compared to the other two groups.
• What are the studies into EWT?

  • Loftus and Palmer - leading questions + broken glass
  • Loftus and Zanni - Did you see THE/A broken headlight
  • Gabbert et al - Post even discussion - staged crime
  • Loftus - Anxiety and weapon focus
  • Valentine and Coxon - Age
  • Yuille and Cutshall - Shopkeeper
• Valentine and Coxon - Age findings

  • Found children are more likely to be misled by leading questions
  • Elderly and children are less accurate with recall than adults
• Yuille and Cutshall - Shopkeepr

  Shopkeeper shot dead a theif

  13/27 pps who saw the real crime

  recalled events 4/5 months after and gave stress rating

  Compared awnsers to original police interviews
• Yuille and Cutchall -Shopkeeper findings

  High-stress group had higher accuracy with 80% recall compared to less stressed

  • Contradicts Loftus - Anxiety study
• Name factors that affect the accuracy of memory.

  • Interference of an easily-confused memory 
  • Context in which information is encoded or retrieved 
  • False memories, e.g. generated by questioning or assumptions 
  • Effort after meaning, i.e. the distorting effect of people trying hard to make sense of information 
• Experimental (co-witness) group - Gabbert - PED

  1. Put into pairs

  2. Watched the video individually

  3. Told it was the same video, but one half of the pair saw the scene from a different perspective and did not actually see the girl steal

  4. Allowed to discuss what they had seen