Memory - misleading information Flashcards
what is an eyewitness testimony
- ability of people to remember the details of eventsw
what is misleading information
- incorrect information given to an eyewitness after the event
what is a leading question
a question that suggests an answer
what is post event discussion
- more than one witness to an event
- witnesses discuss what they have seen
what is the research into leading questions
Loftus and Palmer (1974)
- 45 participants watched film clips of a car accident
- asked leading questions
- asked how fast the car was going - contacted, bumped, collided, smashed
- contacted had a mean speed of 31.8mph
- smashed had a mean speed of 40.5mph
why do leading questions affect eye witness testimony’s
- Loftus and palmer repeated experiement and asked if there was glass present
- verb smashed - more likely to report seeing glass even though there was none
what is the research on post-event discussion
Fiona Gabbert et al (2003)
- participants watched a video of the same crime
- each from a different perspective
- each discussed before individually completing a recall test
- 71% mistakenly recalled
- 0% mistakenly recalled in a control group
why do post event discussion affect eye witness testimony’s
Memory contamination
- combine misinformation with our own memories
Memory conformity
- agree with others for social support
what are the strengths of misleading information
Real world application
- used in the criminal justice system
- used in interviews on witnesses
Loftus (2002)
- asked college students if they saw Ariel and Bugs bunny at Disney
- Ariel wasn’t at Disney at this time
- Bugs bunny isn’t Disney
-proves that leading questions creates false memories
what are the limitations of misleading information
Foster et al (1994)
- if participants were watching a real life robbery their recall would be more accurate than a staged one
Skagerberg and Wright (2008)
- showed participants film clips
- each participant saw one of two clips
- often didn’t report what they had seen but a blend of both clips together
- memory is distorted through contamination not conformity