7. Accuracy of eyewitness testimony: Misleading information

• Misleading information - AO1

  - Misleading information usually given to an eyewitness usually after the event.

  Can either be in the form of leading questions or post-even discussion. Between two co-witnesses
• Eyewitness testimony - AO1

  - The ability of people to remember the details of the events - accidents, crimes which they have observed. - Accuracy of EWT is affected by misleading information and anxiety.
• Leading question - AO1


  - A question that suggests a certain answer because of its phrasing
• Research into leading questions - AO1

  - Loftus and Palmer (1974) -

  Procedure -

  - Arranged for 45 participants (students)

  - Watched clips of car accidents and asked them questions about the accidents

  - They would ask them leading questions about the speed pf the car

  - Five groups - using five verbs - hit, contacted, bumped, collided and smashed

  - Findings - Verb 'contacted' lead to a mean estimated speed of 31.8 MPH and the verb 'smashed' led to a mean estimated speed of 40.1 MPH
• Why do leading questions affect EWT? - AO1

  - Response-bias explanation- wording of the question doesn't effect the memory but influences how they decide to answer.

  - Substitution explanation - the wording of the questions changes the participants memory.

  Loftus and Palmers - conducted second experiment that supported this.

  - When participants were asked using the verb smashed - were more likely to report seeing broken glass - there was none
• Research into post-event discussion - AO1

  - Gabbert et al (2003) -

  Studied participants in pairs

  - Each participant watched the same crime but from different angles

  - Each one could see elements that the other could not

  - They had the chance to discuss before being asked to complete the test of recall

  - Findings - 71% of the participants recalled information from the video that they did not see but picked up - from discussion

  The corresponding figure in the control group where there was no discussion - 0%
• Post-event discussion - AO1

  - When there is more than one witness to an even.

  They may discuss what the other has seen which may influence ethe accuracy of the recall.
• Why does post-event discussion affect EWT?

  - Memory contamination - When discussion occurs memories can become distorted or altered - this is because they combine information from other memories

  - Memory conformity - Gabbet concluded that they went along with one another to win social approval because they believe the other witnesses are right.
• Real world application 😊- AO3

  - Important for practicsal uses in the criminal justice system

  - Loftus (1975) - believed that leading questions had such an effect on memory that police officers should be careful about how they phrase their questions

  - Psychologists can be asked to act as expert eyewitnesses in court trial to explain the limits of EWT to jurors

  - This research had improved how legal symptoms work
• CP for real-world application 🙁- AO3

  - Loftus and Palmers participants watched film clips in a lab - is a very different experience compared to a real, more stressful event

  - Foster et al (1994) - real eyewitnesses' memory has important consequences on the real world but that doesn't matter so much in lab-based research.

  - Palmer is too pessimistic about the effects of misleading information
• Evidence against substitution🙁- AO3

  - EWT is more accurate in some aspects of a event than for others

  - Sutherland and Hayes (2001) - showed participants a video clip.

  - When they were later asked misleading questions their recall was more accurate for central details of the event than the peripheral events

  - Suggests that original memories for central details survived and were not distorted

  - Outcome not predicted by substitution explanation
• Evidence challenging memory conformity 🙁 - AO3

  - There is evidence that post-discussion does alter EWT

  - Skagerberg and Wright (2008) - showed participants film clips of two versions, one where the mugger had dark brown hair and one with light brown hair.

  - Participants discussed the clips in pairs - each having seen different versions

  - They would blend the two version - give an answer of medium brown hair

  - Memory is distorted through contamination rather than conformity