16. Cognitive Psych (Eyewitness Memory/Long-Term Memory Pt. 2)

According to Hugo Munsterberg (1908), witnesses are prepared to lie but are not prepared for what?

To remember the wrong thing.

Who claimed that judges’ decisions were influenced by unconscious processes?

Freud (1906)

What is one of the key roles for a psychologist in the legal system, involving testimony about psychological principles or findings?

Expert testimony.

In the legal context, what is the role of a psychologist as an ‘Advisor?’

They may act as trial consultants.

What role does a psychologist play when they evaluate the effectiveness of programs or public policies being tried?

Evaluator

In the case of Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals (1992), what did the parents claim the drug Bendectin caused?

Serious birth defects

In Daubert v. Merrell Dow, what did the pharmaceutical company’s experts provide evidence against?

They provided evidence that no published scientific study demonstrated a link Bendectin and birth defects.

The expert evidence in the Daubert case was problematic because the methodologies used has not yet gained _______ within the general scientific community.

Acceptance

The Daubert case established criteria for judges to use in deciding the ________ of expert testimony.

Admissibility

According to the Daubert standard, what is the first guideline for determining if science is falsifiable and not ‘junk science?’

It must have undergone peer review.

According to the Daubert standard, what is the second guideline for determining if science is falsifiable and not 'junk science'?

It must have a known rate of error.

What is the third criterion from the Daubert standard for admitting scientific evidence in court?

It should be generally accepted by the scientific community.

What is a primary goal of the judicial system?

To identify and prosecute the guilty while protecting the innocent.

What critical problem in the judicial system can be significantly influenced by an eyewitness?

When an innocent person is prosecuted and a guilty person is set free.

In the Loftus (1974) study on eyewitness impact, what was the conviction rate for the group with NO eyewitness testimony?

18%

In the Loftus (1974) study, the presence of an eyewitness increased the conviction rate to _____.

72%

What was the conviction rate in the Loftus (1974) study when the eyewitness was discredited?

68%

The study by Wells et al. (1998) analyzed the first 40 cases in the U.S. where _____ was used to exonerate a previously convicted person.

DNA

In the initial 40 DNA exoneration cases studied by Wells et al. (1998), what was identified as one of the biggest factors leading to wrongful convictions?

Eyewitness identification (involved in 36 of the 40 cases).

How many wrongful convictions have been overturned by post-conviction DNA evidence (as of September 2025?

204

List two factors during the ‘Encoding’ phase that can influence eyewitness memory.

Quality of viewing conditions and emotional stress.

Introducing new information or asking misleading questions can influence eyewitness memory during which phase?

Storage

What does the Yerke-Dodson Curve propose about the relationship between arousal and memory performance?

Moderate arousal improves memory, while low and high arousal impair memory.

High arousal, such as being held at gunpoint, can _______ the quality of memory encoding.

Distort/impair

What is the tendency for a witness to an event to focus their visual attention on a weapon, causing them to miss other details, including the perpetrator's features?

Weapon Focus Effect

In the Loftus et al. (1987) weapon focus study, how did the 'Weapon Group' scenario differ from the 'Control Group'?

In the weapon group, the man pulled a gun on the cashier instead of handing her a check.

What did Loftus et al. (1987) measure using a corneal reflection device in their weapon focus experiment?

The location and duration of eye fixations.

What was the key finding regarding eye movements in the Loftus et al. (1987) weapon focus study?

People looked at the gun longer than they looked at the check in both groups.

In Experiment 2 of the weapon focus study (Loftus et al., 1987), which group had worse memory performance when trying to identify the person from a lineup?

The weapon group.

The weapon focus effect occurs because an unexpected or unusual object, like a gun, is highly stressful and pulls _____ from other aspects of the event.

Attention

What happens to a person's own-race bias in facial recognition when they are in a joyous state of arousal, according to Johnson & Fredrickson (2005)?

The own-race bias is almost eliminated.

When does the misinformation effect typically occur in the memory process?

Post-encoding, between the original event and recall.

The misinformation effect, a form of retroactive interference, is when misleading info presented after an event can _____ memory for the original event.

Distort

What is the tendency for a witness to incorporate misleading post-event information into their memory of the original event?

Suggestibility (in eyewitness memory)

In the study by Loftus, Miller, & Burns (1978), what object was central to the series of slides shown to participants?

A red Datsun at a stop sign hitting a pedestrian.

In the Loftus et al. (1978) study, what misleading information was given to the 'Inconsistent Information' group?

They were asked a question that implied the Datsun passed a yield sign, not a stop sign.

What were the results for the ‘Misleading Information’ group in the Loftus et al. (1978) study?

Their memories were incredibly inaccurate, performing at chance level (50%).

When a witness mistakenly attributes misleading information they heard later to the actual event they saw, this is known as a _____.

Source monitoring error

In the Nilsson (1987) study on motivation and memory, what were the results for the groups motivated by money?

There was no significant difference; motivation with money did not improve memory performance.

What is the primary takeaway from the Nilsson (1987) motivation and memory study?

We cannot make ourselves remember something through effort or motivation alone.

What is the process of using external tools or resources (like to-do lists or computers) to store information, thereby reducing one's own cognitive load?

Memory offloading

A key benefit of memory offloading is that offloaded memories do not _____ with other information.

Interfere

What is a significant cost or risk of memory offloading?

If you don’t have access to the offloaded information, recalling it will be even harder than if you never offloaded it.

In the Sparrow, Liu, & Wegner (2011) study, participants studied trivia facts and typed them into a computer. What were the two experimental conditions?

Half were told the computer was saving the facts, and half were told it was erasing them.

In the Sparrow et al. (2011) study, which group demonstrated better recall of the trivia facts?

The group that believed the computer was erasing the facts.

Why did participants who offloaded their memory (believed it was saved) perform worse on the recall test in the Sparrow et al. (2011) study?

They devoted fewer attentional resources, assuming they could look up the information again later.