cognitive and criminological practical

• aimed to investigate the effect of reconstructive memory on an eyewitnesses memory recall when participants had a time delay in between reporting an incident.
• the hypothesis was:

  there will be a significant difference between the amount of time between recall immediately after and two weeks after measured by correctly answered questions based on the event out of 10 questions in a queued recall on a stabbing video.
• The study was an opportunity sample of psychology students from Surrey. there were 15 participants all aged 17 to 18 and the study was made up of 2 males 13 females.
• participants were informed that they were to be shown a video about an incident. They were instructed to watch the video and fill out a questionnaire after. The participants had no distractions during the video and was told not to communicate. The clip lasted two minutes nine seconds and was taken from a BBC documentary. The questionnaire included 10 fixed questions and then the participants returned two weeks later to complete the same questionnaire.
• A strength of this practical was using opportunity sample as it is convenient as people are available at the time so data can be collected quick and easy.

  The study is high in reliability due to standard procedures and replicability.

  The study is low in generalisability as there is a small age range and only people in Reigate we used all studying psychology.