Classic evidence

• Loftus and Palmer 1974 - eye witness testimony

  • A legal term referring to the use of eye-witness to give evidence in court concerning the identity of someone who had committed a crime
• Evaluation - EWT may be more accurate in real life

  • Foster et al (1994) - found that if participants thought they were watching a real-life robbery + also thought their responses would influence the trial, their identification of a robber was more accurate
• Evaluation - The Sample

  • Only students - likely to share many characteristics - e.g. lack of driving experience
  • Other groups of people may be more (or less) prone to being affected by misleading information than others
  • Generalise ages!
• Ethical implications

  1. Lack of consent
  2. Psychological harm
  3. Deception