eyewitness testimony

• what is eyewitness testimony ?

  the ability of people to remember details of events which they have observed such as crimes
• what was the aim of johnson and scott study ?

  to investigate the effects of anxiety on accuracy of EWT
• what was the procedure of the johnson and scott study ?

  participants were sat in waiting room and witnessed one scenario

  scenario one - heated argument , man emerged w knife

  scenario two - argument , man emerged w pen

  then asked to identify the man
• what were the findings of johnson and scott study ?

  those from scenario one were less accurate than those from scenario two
• what was the conclusion of the johnson and scott study ?

  high anxiety has a negative effect on accuracy of EWT
• what are the strengths/limitations of the johnson and scott study ?

  unethical - unaware of aims and that it had started

  yulline and cutshall - results demonstrate positive effect

  real life application - may be a miscarriage of justice
• what was the aim of the misleading info study ?

  to investigate the aims of leading questions on accuracy of EWT
• what was the procedure of misleading info study ?

  45 american students watched video of same car crash and then asked a question about the speed of car but the verb was changed for each participant eg bumped , hit , smashed
• what were the findings of misleading info study ?

  smashed - 40.8mph

  contacted - 31.8mph
• what was the conclusion of misleading info study ?

  the harsher the verb the faster the speed estimate

  leading questions do affect accuracy of EWT
• what was the aim of the post-event discussion study?

  to investigate the effect of post event discussion on the accuracy of EWT
• what was the procedure of the post-event discussion study?

  pairs shown video of same crime but from different angles then able to discuss before asked to recall events
• what were the findings of the post-event discussion study ?

  71% mistakenly recalled events from the video
• what was the conclusion from the post-event discussion study ?

  negative effect on accuracy of eye witness testimony
• what were the strengths/limitations of the misleading info study ?

  lacks population validity - only americans

  lab experiment - establish cause and effect

  unethical - deception
• what were the strengths/limitations of the post-event discussion study ?

  unethical - deception

  lab experiment - able to establish cause and effect

  high population validity - varying age groups
• what are the steps in the cognitive interview ?

  report everything , context reinstated , reverse order , change perspective
• how do witnesses report everything ?

  interviewer encourages witness to report all details of the event even if they seem unimportant
• how do witnesses reinstate the context ?

  mentally recreate an image of the situation including details of environent such as weather
• how do witnesses reverse the order?

  asked to recall event in a different chronological order eg end to start
• how do witnesses change their perspective ?

  witness asked to mentally recreate situation from a different point of view
• what are the strengths/limitations of the cognitive interview ?

  research support by geisleman et al- amount of correctly recalled info increases when using cognitive

  issue of time and expense - take longer to conduct and require specialist training

  beneficial to economy - more accurate so less miscarriages of justice