MISLEADING INFORMATION

• What is an eye witness testimony?

  the evidence given in a courtroom or a police investigation by someone who was present during the criminal act, the purpose is usually to identify the perpetrator
• What is a leading question?

  where a question influences your answer and leads you to a certain response
• How did Loftus and Palmer investigate leading questions?

  45 participants watched clips of car accidents and then answered questions about the speed.

  there were 5 groups and each had a different verb in the critical question
• what were the different verbs in Loftus and palmers research?

  Hit, contacted, bumped, collided and smashed
• What were the findings of Loftus and Palmers study?

  The verb ‘contacted‘ produced mean estimated speed of 31.8 mph (lowest). For the verb ‘smashed‘ the mean was 40.5 (highest)
• what was the conclusion of Loftus and Palmers research?

  the leading question biased eyewitness recall of an event
• Why do leading questions affect EWT?

  response bias and substitution
• what is response bias?

  wording of a question has no enduring effect on an eyewitness‘ memory but influences the kind of answer given
• what is the substitution explanation?

  wording of a question does affect eye witness memory, it interferes with the original memory, distorting its accuracy
• How did Gabbert et al investigate post event discussion?

  Paired participants watched a video of the same crime, but the two videos were filmed from different perspectives so different things were seen. Both participants discussed what they had seen on their videos before individually completing a test of recall
• what were the findings of Gabbert et als experiment?

  71% of the participants in the co-witness group recalled information that they had not seen, 60% said the girl was guilty despite the fact they hadn’t seen her commit a crime.

  In the control group there was no discussion so no subsequent errors
• Why does post event information affect EWT?

  memory contamination and memory conformity
• what is memory contamination?

  when co-witnesses discuss a crime, they mix (mis)information from other witnesses with their own memories
• what is memory conformity?

  witnesses go along with each other to win social approval or because they believe the other witnesses are right
• strengths of Loftus and Palmers research?

  Real world applications in the criminal justice system. The consequences of inaccurate EWT are series, research can help them understand that and change how they question eye witnesses

  HOWEVER their research used artificial materials, perception may be different if it was real life
• weakness of loftus and palmers research?

  deceived their participants- ethical issues, they asked about broken glass in their second study even though there was none, however this was necessary to reduce demand characteristics.
• limitation of substitution explanation?

  evidence challenging it. research found that participants recalled central details better than peripheral ones
• limitation of memory conformity?

  evidence refutes the idea. Research showed one group of participants a mugger with light brown hair and the other was shown dark brown hair. They discussed and participants recalled a blend of what they had seen. Suggests only memory contamination not conformity