2.4 Eye Witness Testimony

What is a leading question?

Question which suggests a certain answer due to they way it is worded

• may result in response bias, i.e., the eyewitnesses answer how they think they should answer

What is SCOUT for Misleading information?

S: Loftus and Palmer’s research show that changing a verb can lead participants to answer in a particular way. However this is lab based and the task is artificial. In real life emotional responses could affect memory.

C: Yullie and Cutshall (1986) witnesses suggested that misleading info may have less influence on real life EWT.

O: Anxiety of PED may also affect EWT.

U: Research has been used to help improve the credibility of police interviews and testimony given in courts.

What is Eye witness testimony?

Ability of people to remember events (e.g. accidents/crimes) that they have observed.

Affected by misleading information/anxiety

How does anxiety affect an eyewitness?

• positive effect or a negative effect. Being in a heightened state of physiological arousal (fight or flight) can enhance EWT.

• Tunnel theory proposes that a weapon's presence can negatively affect EWT (weapon focus effect).

• The Yerkes-Dodson law applies to EWT and anxiety, as too much arousal induced by anxiety can impair cognitive functions such as memory.

What is SCOUT for Anxiety and EWT?

S: Lab studies → anxiety decreases EWT. Lack ecological validity as participants are not emotionally aroused like in real life.

C: Yullie and Cutshall’s study suggests that anxiety improves EWT. However this research lack reliability.

O: EWT is complex + Leading question and PED may also impact this.

U: Can be used to help reduce anxiety of witness when they are giving their testimony in count, can be given by video link or behind a screen.

T: Johnson and Scott may not have tested anxiety. It is argued that the reason P. focused on the weapon was because they were surprised rather than scared.

What is the cognitive interview?

A method of interviewing eyewitnesses about what they can recall from a crime scene or event. It was developed to improve EWT in order to enhance recall and thus lead to the more accurate conviction of the perpetrator.

What are Cognitive interview techniques

- Recall everything (witnesses are asked to recall as much detail as they can, however trivial it might seem)

- Recall the events in reverse order (witnesses are asked to recall the event using different chronologies, i.e. start at the end, start from the middle, etc.)

- Reinstate the context (the witness has to think about what was happening at the time of the event: Was it raining?)

- Change the perspective (the witness is asked to view the event from someone else's viewpoint, e.g. the perpetrator or another witness. It should ensure that schemas are not activated so that preconceived ideas do not influence the memory.)

What is SCOUT for Cognitive Interview?

S: Geiselman et. al (1985) Students watched videos of a violent crime and were interviewed using CI schedule. They remembered more than using standard interview techniques.

Fisher et. al (1989) Police detectives who were trained in the use of Ci improved by 47%.

U: Research shows that the CI improves accuracy of EWT reporting → enables better use of police time and resources.

T: Problem of evaluating the effectiveness of CI → when used in the real world it is not one ‘procedure’ but a collection of related techniques.

What is Post Event Discussion?

• memory of an event may being altered through discussing events with others and/or being questioned multiple times. Co-witnesses may reach a consensus view of what actually happened.

What is SCOUT for PED?

S: Gabbert shows how discussion can contaminate participants memories of an event. 

C/O: There are many factors that can affect EWT such as anxiety and leading information.

U: Research has shown that if people are warned of the effects of post event discussion beforehand  (Bodner et al.) police can use this to warn witnesses and reduce the effects of post event discussion.

T: It is hard to test this in a real life situation and EWT is complex, using artificial stimuli in research reduces the ecological validity of the theory.