MEMORY: eye witness testimonies

what ways can misleading information be provided?

- leading questions

- post event discussion

what are leading qestions?

questions asked in a way that suggests an expected answer

why do leading questions affect EWT?

A response-bias explanation - wording of the question doesn't effect the memory but influences how they decide to answer.

Substitution explanation- (Loftus and Palmer's 2nd question) Wording of a leading question changes the participants memory. This was demonstrated as by hearing the word 'smashed' they thought they saw broken glass.

outline aim, results and conclusion of Loftus and Palmer experiment1

Aim: To find out how the way you word a question affects

the answers given.

Results : The average speed given by participants

depended on the verb used in the question - with the

lowest estimate for the verb 'contacted' and the highest

for 'smashed'.

Conclusion: Shows that response bias may influence how

participants decide to answer the question supporting the

idea that leading questions could lead to inaccuracies in

EWT as verb harshness affected answers

outline method of Loftus and Palmer experiment1?

- 45 student participants were shown short video clips of a car accident

- split into 5 groups of 9

- all were asked "about how fast were the cars going when they (verb) each other"

- verbs: smashed/collided/bumped/hit/contacted

what was the experiment design of Loftus and Palmer experiment1 and outline a strength of this

- independent groups

- reduces order effects, if ppts had taken part in all conditions they would have worked out the verbs & aim which would cause demand characteristics reducing validity

outline Loftus and Palmer experiment2

- 150 student ppts were shown a short film of a multi-vehicle car accident

- group1 asked how fast they were going when they hit each other

- group2 asked same question when they smashed into each other

- group3 asked no questions

- 1 week later all were asked if they saw any (non-existant) broken glass

- aim: to see id leading questions affect EWT

- results: Those who thought that the car was travelling faster (smashed:16, hit:7, control:6) were more likely to have thought that they saw broken glass.

explain Loftus and Palmer experiment2

Conclusion: Shows that leading questions do change

the actual memory a participant had for an event

demonstrating substitution explanation supporting

the claim that misleading information can lead to inaccuracies in EWT.

Discuss 1 weakness of Loftus and Palmer experiments

P: One issue with Loftus & Palmer's (1974) research is that it lacks population validity.

E: It is reasonable to argue that the students in their experiment were less experienced drivers, who may be less accurate at estimating speeds.

E: Consequently, we are unable to generalise the results to other populations, for example, older and more experienced drivers, who may feel more confident in their judgement of speeds and therefore not as susceptible to leading questions.

Discuss a strength of Loftus and Palmer experiments

P: application of their findings to the criminal justice system.

E: The criminal justice system relies heavily on the accounts of eyewitnesses and Loftus & Palmer's research highlights the danger of misleading information being used in the courtroom by lawyers, as a single misleading question can affect the accuracy of EWT.

E: This matters because their research can help ensure that courtrooms operate fairly and that innocent people are not convicted of crimes they did not commit, on the basis of inaccurate eyewitness evidence.

what is post even discussion?

The original memory may become distorted after discussion with other co-witnesses or by repeated interviews

Why does post event discussion lead to EWT becoming contaminated?

Source monitoring : When co-witnesses discuss a crime, they mix (mis)information from other witnesses with their own memories and confuse the source.

Memory Conformity: memory distorted through discussion - for either social approval or belief that other witnesses are right.

Outline a study into post-event discussion

- Gabbert et al

- 2 groups ppts watched the same crime scene but from different angles which allowed them to see different angles which allowed them to see different details of the same scene.

- ppts thought everyone watched same video

- asked to recall event in pairs or alone

- recall test to examine effects of co-witness discussion on subsequent memory reports

- 71% of witnesses who had discussed the event mistakenly recalled aspects of the event they had picked up from the discussion with co-witness not in thei rvideo

- no discussion control group: 0%

what does the Gabbert et al study into post-event discussion suggest?

This study suggests that the original memory of an event might be distorted through discussion with co-witnesses due to memory conformity or source monitoring

what is a weakness of research into EWT?

*A limitation of the research into EWT is that they lack external validity due to the following reasons:

- A weakness of Loftus' experiment is that it used artificial materials under controlled conditions.

- Another weakness is that participants in these experiments know that their responses don't have serious consequences, whereas in real life they are aware that they influence the trial.

- A third limitation is that research participants usually want to be helpful and attentive.

*evidence from real life contradicts research studies regarding the impact of misleading information on EWT

* own age bias

Discuss weakness of Loftus' experiment is that it used artificial materials under controlled conditions.

it used artificial materials under controlled conditions. Participants watched film clips of accidents, a very different experience from witnessing real accidents.

Real accidents have more emotional impact and are more stressful.

This shows that artificial tasks tell us little about how leading questions affect EWT in real crimes or accidents.

discuss weakness is that participants in these experiments know that their responses don't have serious consequences, whereas in real life they are aware that they influence the trial.

- ppt in these experiments know that their responses don't have serious consequences, whereas in real life they are aware that they influence the trial.

- They search their memory with more effort because their testimony could result in a wrongful conviction.

- So the accuracy of EWT would be disgreater in the real world.

discuss limitation is that research participants usually want to be helpful and attentive.

So when they are asked a leading question and they do not know the answer, they guess.

This means that the studies suffer from demand characteristics.

This challenges the validity of EWT research since the answers may not reflect their memories.

outline a study from real life into EWT and leading question?

- in a real life crime a gun shop owner shot a thief dead. There were 21 witnesses, 13 agreed to participate. They were intervewed again after 4-5 months and their accounts were compared to the police interviews given at the time of shooting. Asked: did you see yellow panel on his car? Did you see busted light? (both were misleading)

- Ps were able to give accurate recall of the event compared to initial reports.

Do their findings of real life research into EWT support Loftus and palmer's findings? Explain your answer.

No they do not support Loftus and Palmer's findings - show that the accuracy of recall of eye witnesses was not affected by leading questions.

What Factors might explain the difference in results of real life research and Loftus and Palmer experiment:

- Eye witnesses in the real world remember that their testimony has serious consequences in the trial.

- There is also more emotional impact in a real life accident.

- May not be demand characteristics in real world settings

what is own age bias?

- you are more likely to pay attention to people your own age

discuss own age bias as a weakness of research into EWT

- It has been found that although older people were less accurate than younger people as eye witnesses

- All groups are accurate when identifying their own age group.

- Research studies often use younger people as the target to identify

- The issue with this is that the findings may not be valid. Recall of older people may be better than what has been found if the targets had been people similar to their own age.

what is a strength of research into EWT and impact of misleading information

practical application:

- Warn police to be careful about how they phrase questions when interviewing witnesses.

- Warn the justice system of problems with EWT and suggest ways of improving testimonies ( cognitive interviews)

- Warn participants that anything that they hear from a co witness is second hand information- they should recall only their own memory of the event.

what are ethical issues of research into impact of misleading information through lab studies + defence

- deception + informed consent: P's led to believe that study

was to measure ability to estimate speed of moving vehicles but they were actually measuring how estimates were influenced by leading questions- meant there was no informed consent since information was withheld.

defence: debrief and tell all

- protection from harm: Participant's may have felt distressed while watching film clips of accidents.

defence: warn at beginning, right to withdraw at all times, debrief at end to answer any queries

what is the negative effects of anxiety on memory?

Anxiety creates a physiological response in the body which prevents us from paying attention to important cues and so recall is worse.

can cause weapon focus

what is weapon focus?

When people are in a stressful situation their attention is narrowly focused on the most fearful aspect of the situation- the weapon because it is a source of high anxiety and away from other details.

outline a study that supports weapon focus

- Johnson and scott

- participants were told they were taking part in a lab study. While seated in a waiting room participants heard an argument in the next room

- in the low anxiety condition: a man then walked through the waiting area, carrying s pen and with grease on his hands

- in the high anxiety condition: the argument was accompanied by the sound of breaking glass. A man then walked out of the room, holding a paper knife that was covered in blood

- participants were then asked to pick out the man from a set if 50 photos

- results: 49% of participants who saw the man carrying pen were able to identify him & 33% of participants who saw the man carrying blood covered knife were able to identify him

- conclusion: this is known as the tunnel theory

what is the tunnel theory?

- argues that the witness's attention us narrowed to focus of the weapon because it us the source of danger and anxiety (rather than the person)

Evaluate Johnson & Scott's study

A limitation of Johnson's study is that it have tested unusualness/ surprise and not anxiety. This can be see through Pickel's study -used scissors, handgun, wallet and raw chicken as hand held items in a hair dressing salon. EWT was poorer in the high unusualness conditions and not anxiety for raw

chicken and handgun. So we do not specifically know the effects of anxiety on EWT.

Another limitation is that there are ethical issues. Studies create anxiety - unethical since they subject people to psychological harm for research.

A further limitation is that most lab experiments studying the

impact of anxiety on EWT show the participants a filmed/staged crime. Most participants know that they are participating in a study. Issue: Might lead to demand characteristics since they would have worked out that they are going to be questioned about what they have seen - may change answers to what is expected. Decreases validity of findings. Decreases the support for the impact of anxiety on EWT.

Furthermore, Field studies sometimes lack control Other things may happen in between such as: Discussions with other people about the event, accounts they might have read/seen in media etc. Reduce the validity of the supportive evidence.

What are solutions to the ethical issues concerning research studying effect of anxiety on memory?

- Use real life studies - interview people who have already witnessed an event.

- Debrief

- Give participants the right to withdraw if distressed

are there any positive effects of of anxiety on recall?

The stress of witnessing a crime/accident creates anxiety through physiological arousal in the body. The fight or flight response is triggered which increases our alertness and improves our memory.

An evolutionary argument suggests that it would be adaptive to remember events that are emotionally important so you can identify similar situations in the future and recall how to respond.

outline a study that supports the positive effect anxiety can have on recall?

- Yullie and Cutshall: a gun shop owner shot a thief dead. There were 21 witnesses, 13 agreed to participate. They were interviewed again after 4-5 months and their accounts were compared to the police interviews given at the time of shooting. Asked: did you see yellow panel on his car? Did you see busted light? (both were misleading) AND witnesses rated how stressed they felt at time of incident.

- Ps were able to give accurate recall of the event compared to initial reports.

- conclusion: study supports fight or flight increasing psychological arousal, therefore increasing accuracy of memory recall & effect of anxiety on EWT

Why is there evidence of anxiety having positive and negative effects on memory?

- According to Yerkes-Dodson law, the relationship between emotional arousal/stress and performance is curvilinear not linear - looks like an inverted U

- This inverted U theory states that performance will increase with stress but only to an optimum level and beyond that it will suffer drastically

Evaluate inverted U explanation?

Anxiety is difficult to define because it has many elements such as cognitive, emotional, physiological and behavioural The inverted U it is too simplified. It links anxiety to just physiology and does not account for the other factors.

E.g. Accuracy of recall may be affected by fear (

emotional factor)

State a way to improve eye witness testimonies?

- cognitive interview

- suggested by Fisher and Geisleman

state the 4 techniques used by cognitive interviews to improve accurate retrieval of memories?

- report everything

- reinstate the context

- recall in reverse order

- recall from a different perspective

outline context reinstatement in cognitive interviews

- The interviewer tries to mentally reinstate the environmental and personal context of the crime for the witnesses, perhaps by asking them about their general activities and feelings on the day.

- This could include sights, sounds, feelings and emotions, the weather etc. In the interview, witnesses are often asked to use all of their five senses in their recollection of the event.

- This can help in recreating the event clearly in their mind and may trigger the recall of context-dependent memories

outline report everything technique in cognitive interviews

- Witnesses are asked to report every detail, even if they think that detail is trivial.

- In this way, apparently unimportant detail might act as a trigger for key information about the event.

outline role of recalling from a different perspective in cognitive interviews

- Witnesses are asked to report the incident differently, describing what they think other witnesses (or even the criminals themselves) might have seen.

- disrupts the effect of schema on recall which could cause you to have expectations of what would have happened in particular setting

outline the role of recalling in reverse order in cognitive interviews

- Recounting the incident in a different narrative order.

- Geiselman and Fisher proposed that due to the recency effect, people tend to recall more recent events more clearly than others. Witnesses should be encouraged to work backwards from the end to the beginning.

- When events are recalled in forward order, witnesses reconstruct based on their schemas, this might lead to distortion. If the order is changed, they are more accurate as they are less likely to use their schemas.

- also prevents dishonesty (harder to produce untruthful events when accounting backwards)

state additional features of the enhanced cognitive interview?

- Know when to establish eye contact

- Adapt questions to suit understanding of individual witnesses.

- Offer comments to help clarify statements

- Encourage the witnesses to speak slowly, with pauses

- Try to reduce eye witness anxiety - encourage them to

relax, establish rapport.

why was the enhanced cognitive interview needed?

Developed because cognitive interview showed that officers lacked social skills- added social and communication skills to training.

outline when modified cognitive interviews are used?

- used with children which stresses on building a rapport relationship between interviewer and witness

- removes demand characteristics as children are seen to be too young to effectively empathise with others

- police forces also use modified modified CI's which are shorter so less time consuming

state 2 studies that support the usefulness of the cognitive interview

- Geiselman et al 1988

- Fisher et al 1989

outline the Geiselman et al study supporting cognitive interviews

- trainee police officer were shown police training videos of crimes

- 2 days later they were interviewd by experienced PI's or CIA agents using either standard interviews or CI.

- significantly more factually correct info was retrieved with CI without as much confabulation or mistakes

- suggests CI is better as it yields more information and recall is more accurate

outline the Fisher et al study supporting CI

- study on real- life CI performance

- researchers trained police detectives in Florida in the use of CI

- compare their interview performance before and after training

- gained as much as 47% more useful information from witnesses to real crimes after training compared to when using standard interview techniques

Evaluate cognitive interviews other than research support

LIMITATION: More time consuming. This may be why use of CI is not wide spread. You need to establish rapport with witness and allow them to relax. Also can require special training and some forces wont be bale to provide more than a few hours of training so proper version of CI is unlikely. - Many variations used, STRENGTH: it is flexible and be adapted to different

circumstances LIMITATION: difficult to compare effectiveness. If a research study shows that one version is effective- findings may not apply to all versions. Makes it easier for them to reject it.

LIMITATION: May increase incorrect information. Kohnken's research found an 81% increase in of correct info but also 61% increase in false info especially in enhanced CI - could lead to false convictions

STRENGTH: all 4 techniques used are valuable as each on it's own produces more info that the standard interview. HOWEVER, evidence shows that using a combination of report everything and context reinstatement led to better recall than any other technique suggesting that some aspects are more useful than others. Casts some doubt on credibility on CI as a whole but at least these 2 aspects should be used and are useful.

STRENGTH: techniques are based on psychological research on human memory. Eg, report everything and reinstate context are based on Tulving's encoding specificity principle. Techniques have applications outside of EWT.