Evaluative points

MSM

• Observing internal processes we can’t see

• Artificial tasks - learning trigrams in Peterson and Peterson study lacks ecological validity

• Alternate explanation - proactive interference may have taken place in Peterson and Peterson study, old trigrams interfered with recall of newer ones

• Lots of supporting research

WMM

• Useful application - not driving whilst texting

• Supporting research - Baddley dual process taks

• Supporting research all lab experiments - low ecological validity

• Observing tasks we can’t see

Forgetting: interference

• Nomothetic approach - studies don’t account for individual differences

• lab experiments

• Supporting research

Forgetting: retrieval faliure due to absence of cues preventing access to LTM

• Context dependant cues (environment)

• State dependant cues (emotional physical state at the time)

• Baddleys scuba divers experiment lack ecological validity

• Useful application of Grant study - revise in same conditions as test

• Supporting research - Grant, high ecological validity as realistic environment of noisy cafeteria sounds playing in headphones

Misleading information affection EWT

• Leading questions

• Post event discussion

• Applications – Both pieces of research can be implemented into improving EWT by training police officers in questioning or by making jurors aware in court rooms so that eye witness experts can be used in a trial.

• Supporting research

• Artificial tasks - Both Loftus and Palmer and Gabbert et al used videos - dont represent the anxiety of witnessing scary events in real life so findings may not be generalisable to real life eye witnesses, lacks ecological validity

Factors effecting EWT

• Leading questions

• Post event discussion

• Anxiety

Anxiety: factor effecting EWT

• inverted U theory - optimum arousal needed for best recal ability

• Supporting evidence for ANXIETY DECREASES MEMORY - Johnson and Scott Weapon Focus effect. Participants could accurately recall the identity of the guy with the pen on 49% of occasions but the knifeman on only 33%.

• Supporting evidence for ANXIETY INCREASES MEMORY - Cutshall et al investigated the effect of anxiety in a real life shooting that happened in Canada. A shop keeper shot a thief dead. There were 21 witnesses and 13 of them agreed to take part in the study. They found that the 13 witnesses who took part in the follow-up interview were accurate in their eyewitness accounts 5 months later. In addition, participants who reported higher levels of stress were the most accurate in comparison to the less stressed participants.

• Real life application of inverted U theory to EWT - could only interview witnesses who had optimum arousal

Improving EWT - Cognitive Interview

• Supporting research - FISHER, field experiment, (natural environment so high ecological validity) Interviews with real crime witnesses by 16 detectives where 63% more information was recorded in the trained CI group compared to the untrained group using standard interview.

• Useful application to real life EWT

• Lacks Inter-rater reliability - Hard to compare standard with cognitive interview as SI does not involve a standardised procedure so SI would’ve varied within each interviewer

• Nomothetic - doesn’t account for individual differences eg. age (could confuse old people or its suggested that the CI is not suitable for children under 8, may not have the intellectual capabilities to complete the interview)