CH.8 Cont Flashcards
Weapon Focus:
tendency of witnesses to remember details about the weapon better than details about the person
EYEWITNESSES, Errors in Attention, Stanny and Johnson
Group A: saw perp fire a gun
Group B: saw perp take out the gun and intimidate witness
CONCLUSION: group A remembered way less details than group B, both groups recalled details about the weapon better than the perp (WEAPON FOCUS)
High emotional arousal = poor memory
Familiarity Error, Ross Experiment
Familiarity Error: mistake someone as perpetrator due to sense of familiarity of them from another context (SOURCE MONITORING ERROR)
Ross Experiment: participants shown videos of teachers reading to students, experimental group shown male teacher reading, control shown female teacher reading
Task: experimental group that had male teacher were more likely to identify male teacher as perp when the robber was not in the photo
When robber was in the photo, people were still more likely to identify male teacher as perp
THIS OCCURED DUE TO SENSE OF FAMILIARITY
Post-Identification Feedback Effect, Wells and Bradfield Experiment:
when participants selected a perp and then received confirming feedback from the officer, they had the most confidence
When people received no feedback, they were midway confident
When they received disconfirming feedback, they had very low feedback
CONCLUSION: CONFIDENCE EITHER DECREASES OR INCREASES DEPENDING ON THE KIND OF FEEDBACK GIVEN TO THEM BY THE OFFICER
MEMORIES ARE EXTREMELY SUSCEPTIBLE TO SUGGESTION
Misinformation Effect, Misleading Post-Event Questioning Experiment
Info presented after a person witnesses something can change how the person later recalls/describes it
Task: participants watched an action TV episode
Group A: given recall test
Group B: played Tetris to distract them after
TASK; participants heard a description of episode, containing misinformation
Group A: more likely to recall incorrect items
Group B: less likely to recall incorrect items
REVERSE TESTING EFFECT: group B didn’t have chance to incorporate false info because GROUP A took a recall test immediately after, which increases susceptibility to misinformation
CONCLUSION: this occurs due to reconsolidation; re-commit false memory into LT
Blind Investigator:
best way to prevent investigator from giving confirmatory info, when officer doesn’t know which one is the perp
Immediate Confidence Rating:
rate how confident they are right after giving response; confidence rating tracks way more accurately right after, but over time people become more confident so NOT effective to ask them for confidence much later
Improving Interview Techniques, Cognitive INterview Technique:
provide very minimal interruptions, don’t give suggestions, recreate situation, visualize from all vantage points, results in 20-60% more info
Sequential Presentation of Lineup:
if witness sees all the options at once, they will likely choose the most similar person; reduced to only 17% of misidentification rate
Hyman, Implanting False Memories
Hyman, Implanting False Memories, Low Probability Event: contacted parents of participants to get descriptions of real childhood stories
Task: experimenters provided a short description of a story to the participant and asked to elaborate on the story
Some stories participants were told were true events
Others events were false
RESULTS: by the 2nd interview, 20% of “recalled” details about an event that never actually happened
Loftus and Pickrell, Lost in the Mall Study
Loftus and Pickrell: lost in the mall study, experimenters asked parents for descriptions of real childhood stories and then provided false story (that they got lost in the mall as a kid) false story incorporated plausible details from other experiences, EMBEDDED REALISTIC DETAILS
25% still recalled the false memory
Even after being told that one of the memories they were told was false, 25% of participants couldn’t pick out which one was actually false
Wade & Lindsay, Doctored Photographs, Balloon Experience
Asked parents for childhood photos, photoshopped them into fake experience
Asked to provide description of event
Followed standard protocol used by police to get more details from eyewitnesses
By third session, 50% of people remembered details about the balloon ride
Recovered Memories:
memories for a traumatic event that is suddenly retrieved after being blocked for a long period of time (‘DEPRESSED MEMORIES” -coined by Freudians)
Betrayal Trauma Theory:
children are dependent upon adults, in order to maintain attachment to the adult, the child actively inhibits memories of abuse by trusted adults (SUPPORT FOR RECOVERED MEMORIES)
