Misleading information

• Misleading Information A01 - Leading Questions

  Questions that are worded to suggest a particular answer.

  ·  Response Bias – influences the kind of answer given but has no affect on the memory of an event.

  ·  Substitution explanation – interferes with the original memory to distort the accuracy.
• Misleading Information A01 - Post event information

  Information given after an event with potential to influence memory of it.
• Misleading Information A01 - Case study

  · Gabbert Et Al (2003) – paired participants watching a crime together but filmed so each person could see events the other could not – discussion between them after film – 71% of participants wrongly recalled events and included events they heard in discussion and not seen in video.
• Misleading Information A03 - Loftus and Palmer (1974)


  · 45 students watching film clips of car accidents and given a questionnaire – critical question – ‘how fast were the cars going before they hit each other’ – five groups of participants replaced with different words (bumped, contacted, collided, smashed).

  · Results – ‘contacted’ gave mean average of 31.8mph – ‘smashed’ gave mean average 40.5mph – leading question suggesting faster speeds.
• Misleading Information A03 - Real world application

  · Loftus (1975) – argues police officers should be careful when phrasing questions towards witnesses – could become leading and its distorting effects.

  · Psychologists are sometimes expert witnesses in trials – explaining limits to EWT to juries.

  · Psychologists can improve how the legal system works – protecting the innocent from faulty convictions – EWT unreliable.
• Misleading Information A03 - Lindsay (1990)

  · Shows a series of slides to participants – man steals from office – given an account of the crime after with misleading info – given a questionnaire and told not to pay attention to the account and to rely on own memory.

  · Influenced by the post event information – changes the way memory is stored and isn’t just about retrieval.