4) factors effecting eyewitness testimony

What does eyewitness testimony refer to?

The ability to recall events that one has seen or experienced

What are leading questions?

questions that suggest or encourage a particular answer

What’ the response bias explanation for leading questions?

Questions influence how we decide to answer

What’s memory substitution explanation for leading questions?

The question actually changes the memory

What’s was the procedure of Loftus and Palmer (1974)?

45 American students were shown 7 films of traffic accidents, a critical question was asked “how fast were the cards going when they _ each other?”

What were the experimental design/method of Loftus and Palmer (1974) experiment?

Independent design group with five conditions

What was the IV in Loftus and Palmer (1974) experiment?

A critical question that was phrased differently for different conditions

What were the verbs used in Loftus and Palmer (1974) for the critical question?

Smashed/collided/bumped/hit/contacted

What conclusion was drawn in Loftus and Palmer (1974) experiment?

When the verb used was more ‘violent’ the faster they think the car went

What is memory conformity?

When co-witnesses go along with each other, either to win social approval or because they believe the other witnesses are right and they are wrong

How can memories of event be altered/contaminated?

Discussing the events with others (post event discussion)

How does memory contamination occur?

During discussion when witnesses may combine (mis)information from other witnesses with their own memory

What was Gebbert (2003) procedure?

Participants were put into pairs where each partner watch a video of the same crime but filmed from different pov. In one condition, pairs then discussed the event before each completing a test to recall the events they had just watched

What were the findings of Gabbert (2003) experiment?

71% of participants who had discussed event with their partners, mistakenly recalled items discussed by the other partner which they did not see in the video, whilst in a control group, the corresponding figure was 0%

What did Gabbert (2003) concluded in his experiment

That witness displayed memory conformity

Why is it a disadvantage that research into leading questions and post event discussion use artificial tasks?

They lack mundane realism which brings internal validity into questions

What are the contradictory findings of the effect of leading questions and post when discussion on eye witness testimony?

Yuille and Cutshall (1986) found that witnesses had very accurate memories of highly stressful event and were resistant to the effects of misleading questions

why does eye witness testimony research have real world application?

Because the criminal justice system relies heavily on eyewitness identification for investigating and prosecuting crimes

The Yerkes-Dodson law

What was the procedure of Yuille and Cutshall (1986) case study?

In an actual crime, a gun shop owner shot a thief dead, 13 witnesses agreed to participate in the study. Witnesses rated how stressed they felt at the time of the incident.

What were the findings of Yuille and Cutshall (1986) case study?

Witnesses were very accurate in recall and there was little change when re-interviewing five months later, even with misleading questions. Participants who reported the highest level of stress were most accurate (88%) compared to the 75% of the less stressed group

What’s the weapon focus effect?

When anxiety causes the witness to focus on central details(a weapon) rather than what’s going on, which decreases the ability of the witness to institute the offender

What were the procedure if Johnson and Scott (1976) experiment?

Where participants sat in a waiting room and were led to believe they were talking part in a lab study. In the low anxiety condition, a conversation happened and a man walked out with a pen and grease in his hand. In the high anxiety condition, participants heard a heated argument with class breaking and a man walking out holding a knife with blood

What were the findings of Johnson and Scott (1976) experiment?

49% of participants in the low anxiety condition could later identify the man from 50 photos compared to only 33% in group 2

What was the aim of Pickel (1998) experiment?

That weapon focus may be to do with unusualness rather than anxiety

What were the procedure of Pickel (1998) experiment?

Showed participants a video that f an incident in a hair salon before being asked to recall the events. Five conditions (what the man was holding) was used. Scissors, gun, wallet, raw whole chicken and empty (control group)

What were the results of Pickel (1998) experiment?

When the man held more unusual objects, memory recall was worst

What was the procedure of Valentine and Mesout (2009)?

They used heart rate to divide visitors to the London Dungeon’s labyrinth into low and high anxiety group

What were the conditions of Valentine and Mesout (2009) experiment?

High anxiety participant were less accurate than low anxiety participants in describing and identifying a target person

Why is it a disadvantage that research into effect of anxiety on eye witness testimony usually uses interview of real life eye witnesses?

Multiple factors can occur in the meantime that the researchers have no control over which may effect results