eyewitness testimony Flashcards
eyewitness testimony definition
legal term refurring to someone whos seen something and has to give their account on what happened. its a stated memory which is used in court.
Loftus and palmer- effect of misleading info
Asked to estimate the speed of cars concerning traffic accidents. lab experiment with 45 students were shown a film of traffic accidents. leading qs afterwards included misleading words: either- hit (mean speed 34 mph), smashed(mean speed 40.8mph), bumped(mean speed 38.1), collided(mean speed 39.3) or contacted(mean speed 31.8) it showed how misleading questions can have a significant effect on memory.
Loftus et al- effect of misleading info
conducted lab experiment. ps were shown photos of car at a junction with stop or yield then asked qs either consistent with a photo (eg ps saw photo of stop sign then asked about a car at a stop sign) or inconsistent (eg ps saw photo of yield sign but asked about a car at a stop sign). finally they were shown pairs of photos and asked to identify which was the original. those given consistent were 75% accurate compared to inconsistent 41% correct in identification
Effects of anxiety on ewt
loftus and burns- showed one group of ps a film of a crime with no violence and another group were shown the same film but with violence (boy was shot in the face). those who saw the film with violence recalled significantly less then those who saw the film without violence.
Peters- studied people going to a local health clinic for an inoculation. they met a nurse(who gave the injection) and a researcher for the same amount of time. a week later were asked to identify the nurse and researcher from a series of photos. ps were better at identifying researcher compared to the nurse. peters argued that anxiety of getting an inoculation had effected memory
loftus- conducted an experiment where ps were asked to arrive at a lab and wait in a waiting area next to the lab. one group heard a quiet discussion about equipment failure and a man emerged with a pen in his greasy hands, he uttered a single comment and walked past the ps and out of the room. the other group of ps heard a heated and angry argument coming from the lab and heard breaking glass and crashing chairs. this time a man emerged with a plastic knife with blood on it he also muttered something whilst walking past the ps out of the room. ps were given 50 photos and asked to identify the man. the man was identified 49% of the time whilst holding the pen and 33% when holding a knife.
evaluate research that investigated effect of anxiety on ewt accuracy
loftus and burns had high internal validity. all extraneous variables had been controlled for. they controlled for damand characteristics with independent measures. :)
low ecological validity as its set in a lab. they are in a room with stangers which for some people can automatically raise anxiety levels. because of this their usual actions may be changed when watching the film. equally it was just a tape, witnessing real danger is much different.
Effects of age on ewt
anastasi and rhodes- tested 3 age groups (teenage/twenties, thirties/forties, fifties/sixties) each participant was shown 24 photos of a mixture of age groups. later they were asked to to pick out the 24 photos from a selection of 48. it was foound generally the young and middle aged group were better at recall however all three were better at recognising photos of their own age group
yarmey- found litte difference in accuracy of age related recall. he got young women to stop people in the street and talk to them for 15 secs. she did this with 651 ps of varying age. two mins later the ps had to recall the physical characteristics of the women. all age groups performed similarly but the younger age groups were more confident in their recall.
