Psychology EWT + CI

ANXIETY: What is the effect of anxiety on EWT?

AO1: Anxiety can reduce eyewitness accuracy by diverting attention away from important details. AO3: Johnson and Scott (1976) found fewer participants identified a man carrying a knife than a pen, supporting the weapon focus effect.

ANXIETY: What did Yuille and Cutshall (1986) find?

AO1: Witnesses experiencing greater stress were more accurate in their accounts of a real-life shooting. AO3: This challenges the idea that anxiety always reduces EWT accuracy and has high ecological validity.

ANXIETY: What is a limitation of anxiety research?

AO3: Laboratory studies may lack ecological validity because watching staged events does not recreate the stress of witnessing a real crime.

EWT: What is eyewitness testimony and why might it be unreliable?

AO1: EWT is an eyewitness's account of an event. AO3: Memory is reconstructive, meaning recall can be influenced by external information and expectations.

EWT: What is reconstructive memory?

AO1: Memories are actively rebuilt rather than exact recordings. AO3: This explains why eyewitness accounts can become distorted over time.

EWT: What affects the reliability of EWT?

AO1: Anxiety, leading questions and post-event discussion. AO3: These factors can influence recall, meaning eyewitness accounts are not always accurate.

LEADING QUESTIONS: What is a leading question?

AO1: A question phrased to encourage a particular answer. AO3: Loftus and Palmer (1974) demonstrated that wording can influence eyewitness responses.

LEADING QUESTIONS: What did Loftus and Palmer (1974) find?

AO1: Participants given the word smashed estimated higher speeds than those given contacted. AO3: This supports the idea that leading questions can influence memory or response bias.

LEADING QUESTIONS: What is a limitation of Loftus and Palmer?

AO3: The study used film clips rather than real accidents, reducing ecological validity.

PED: What is post-event discussion?

AO1: When witnesses discuss an event after witnessing it. AO3: Information from others can contaminate original memories.

PED: What did Gabbert et al. (2003) find?

AO1: 71% of participants who discussed an event reported at least one item they had not witnessed. AO3: This supports the idea of memory conformity.

PED: What is source monitoring?

AO1: The ability to identify the origin of a memory. AO3: Witnesses may confuse information from another person with their own original memories.

CI: What are the four techniques of the cognitive interview?

AO1: Context reinstatement, report everything, change perspective and change order.

CI: What is the enhanced cognitive interview?

AO1: An improved CI incorporating social and communication techniques. AO3: It helps witnesses provide more detailed accounts through better interviewer interaction.

CI: What are the strengths and weaknesses of the CI?

AO3: It can increase the amount of accurate information recalled, improving police investigations. However, it requires extensive interviewer training and takes longer.