Memory - Memory Accuracy

Question 1

What can leading questions result in?

Answer 1

• response-bias explanation

- substitution explanation

Question 2

What is a response-bias explanation?

Answer 2

Wording of a question has no enduring effect on an eyewitness’s memory of an event, but influences the kind of answer given.

Question 3

What is a substitution explanation?

Answer 3

Wording of a question does affect eyewitness memory; it interferes with its original memory, distorting its accuracy.

Question 4

Procedure

Loftus and Palmer (1974) Leading Questions

Answer 4

45 participants (students) watched film clips of car accidents and then answered questions about speed. Critical question: “About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?”

Five groups of participants, each given a different verb in the critical question: hit, contacted, bumped, collided or smashed.

Question 5

Findings and Conclusions

Loftus and Palmer (1974) Leading Questions

Answer 5

The verb ‘contacted’ produced a mean estimated speed of 31.8 mph. For the verb ‘smashed’, the mean was 40.5 mph.

The leading question (verb) biased eyewitness recall of an event. The verb ‘smashed’ suggested a faster speed of the car than ‘contacted’.

Question 6

What can post-event discussion lead to?

Answer 6

• memory contamination

- memory conformity

Question 7

What is memory contamination?

Answer 7

When co-witnesses discuss a crime, they mix (mis)information from other witnesses with their own memories.

Question 8

What is memory conformity?

Answer 8

Witnesses go along with each other to win social approval or because they believe the other witnesses are right.

Question 9

Procedure

Gabbert et al. (2003) Post-Event Discussion

Answer 9

Paired participants watched a video of the same crime, but filmed so each participant could see elements in the event that the other could not.

Both participants discussed what they had seen on the video before individually completing a test of recall.

Question 10

Findings and Conclusions

Gabbert et al. (2003) Post-Event Discussion

Answer 10

71% of the participants mistakenly recalled aspects of the event that they did not see in the video but had picked up in the post-event discussion.

In a control group, where there was no discussion, there were no errors.

Question 11

What are the strengths of research into the effect of misleading information on eyewitness testimonies?

Answer 11

• research into misleading information has real-life applications

Question 12

What are the weaknesses of research into the effect of misleading information on eyewitness testimonies?

Answer 12

• Loftus and Palmer’s study used artificial materials
• there may be individual differences in accuracy of EWT
• lab studies of EWT suffer from demand characteristics
• many EWT research studies lack external validity

Question 13

What real-life applications does research into misleading information have?

Answer 13

The research has led to important practical uses for police officers and investigators, important because the consequences of inaccurate EWT can be very serious.

Loftus (1975) claimed that leading questions can have such a distorting influence on memory that police officers need to be careful about how they phrase questions when interviewing eyewitnesses.

Research into EWT is one area where psychologists can make an important difference to the lives of real people, e.g. by improving how the legal system works and acting as expert witnesses.

Question 14

How does Loftus and Palmer’s study use artificial materials?

Answer 14

Participants watched film clips of accidents, a very different experience from witnessing a real accident (e.g. it is less stressful).

Yuille and Cutshall (1986) found that witnesses of a traumatic real armed robbery had very accurate recall after four months.

This shows that using artificial tasks tells us little about how leading questions affect EWT in real crimes or accidents.

Question 15

How may there be individual differences in accuracy of EWT?

Answer 15

Anastasi and Rhodes (2006) found that older people were less accurate than younger people when giving eyewitness reports.

However, they also found that all age groups were more accurate when identifying people of their own age group (own-age bias).

Research studies often use younger people as the target to identify. So some age groups may seem less accurate but this is not really the case.

Question 16

How do lab studies of EWT suffer from demand characteristics?

Answer 16

Research participants usually want to be helpful and attentive. So when they are asked a question and don’t know the answer, they guess, (especially for yes/no questions).

Participants might be asked ‘Did you see the blue car?’. Even if there was not a blue car in the film, participants may reply ‘yes’ because it seems a more helpful answer.

This challenges the validity of EWT research. Studies intend to measure the accuracy of eyewitness memory but the answers eyewitnesses give may not actually reflect their memories.

Question 17

How do EWT research studies lack external validity?

Answer 17

Foster et al. (1994) argue that what you remember as an eyewitness can have important consequences in the real world, but the same is not true in research studies.

Real eyewitnesses search their memory with more effort because their testimony may lead to a successful conviction (or wrongful if inaccurate). This is not true in research studies.

Therefore EWt accuracy may be greater in the real world because of the seriousness with which eyewitnesses undertake their role.

Question 18

What is weapon focus?

Answer 18

When a crime involves a weapon, it often attracts the attention of eyewitnesses. The anxiety associated with the weapon may affect recall of the event. This is weapon focus.

Question 19

Procedure

Johnson and Scott (1976) and Loftus (1979) Anxiety has a Negative Effect

Answer 19

Participants sat in a waiting room believing they were going to take part in a lab study.

Each participant heard an argument in the next room.

• Low-anxiety condition: a man then walked through the waiting room carrying a pen with grease on his hands.
• High-anxiety condition: the heated argument was accompanied by the sound of breaking glass. A man then walked through the room holding a paper-knife covered in blood.

Participants were later asked to pick the man from a set of 50 photographs.

Question 20

Findings and Conclusions

Johnson and Scott (1976) and Loftus (1979) Anxiety has a Negative Effect

Answer 20

49% of participants in the low-anxiety condition were able to identify him. The corresponding figure for high-anxiety participants was just 33%.

The tunnel theory of memory argues that a witness’s attention is on the weapon (weapon focus), because it is a source of danger and anxiety.

Question 21

Procedure

Yuille and Cutshall (1986) Anxiety has a Positive Effect

Answer 21

In a real-life crime, a gun-shop owner shot a thief dead. There were 21 witnesses, 13 agreed to participate in the study.

Participants were interviewed 4-5 months after the incident. Accounts were compared to the police interviews at the time of the shooting.

Witnesses rated how stressed they felt at the time of the incident.

Question 22

Findings and Conclusions

Yuille and Cutshall (1986) Anxiety has a Positive Effect

Answer 22

Witnesses were very accurate and there was little change after 5 months. Some details were less accurate, e.g. colours of times, and age/weight/height.

Participants who reported the highest levels of stress were most accurate (about 88% compared to 75% for the less-stressed group).

Question 23

How can you explain the contradictory findings?

Answer 23

‘Inverted U’ theory.
Yerkes and Dodson (1908) argue that the relationship between performance and arousal/stress is curvilinear rather than linear.

Affects memory.
Deffenbacher (1983) found that lower levels of anxiety did produce lower levels of recall accuracy. Recall accuracy increases with anxiety up to an optimal point. A drastic decline in accuracy is seen when an eyewitness experiences more anxiety than the optimal point.

Question 24

What are the weaknesses of research into the effect of anxiety on eyewitness testimonies?

Answer 24

• Johnson and Scott’s study may test surprise and not anxiety
• field studies lack control of variables
• there are ethical issues in this research area
• the inverted-u explanation is limited because it is too simplistic
• demand characteristics may affect lab studies of anxiety

Question 25

How may Johnson and Scott’s study test surprise and not anxiety?

Answer 25

Participants may focus on a weapon because they are surprised at what they see rather than because they are scared.

Pickel (1998) used scissors, handguns, wallets and raw chicken as hand-held items in a hairdressing salon. EWT accuracy was poorer for high unusualness (chicken and handgun).

So the weapon focus effect is due to unusualness rather than anxiety/threat and therefore tells us nothing specifically about the effects of anxiety on EWT.

Question 26

How do field studies lack control of variables?

Answer 26

Real-life witnesses are interviewed sometime after the event. Many things happen to them in the meantime that researchers cannot control.

Examples: eyewitnesses discuss the event with others; they read or view accounts in the media; the police interview may influence their memory (post-event discussions).

These extraneous variables may be responsible for the (in)accuracy of recall, not anxiety. It is difficult to isolate the variables.

Question 27

What ethical issues are there in the research area of anxiety?

Answer 27

Creating anxiety in participants is potentially unethical because it may subject people to psychological harm purely for research purposes.

So real-life studies are beneficial: psychologists interview people who have already witnessed an event, so there is no need to create it.

Ethical issues don’t challenge the findings of studies (e.g. Johnson and Scott) but they do raise questions about conducting such research.

Question 28

How is the inverted-U explanation too simplistic?

Answer 28

Anxiety is difficult to define and measure because it has many elements - cognitive, behavioural, emotional and physical.

The inverted-U explanation assumes that one of these is linked to poor performance - physiological (physical) arousal.

The explanation fails to account for other factors; for example the effect of the emotional experience of witnessing a crime (e.g. terror, fear) on the accuracy of memory.

Question 29

How may demand characteristics affect lab studies of anxiety?

Answer 29

Most participants in controlled lab studies are aware they are watching a filmed (and staged) crime for a reason to do with a study.

They may work out that they will be asked questions about what they have seen. They may give responses which they believe to be helpful to the researcher.

So the research is not measuring the accuracy of EWT and this reduces the validity of research investigating the effects of anxiety.

Question 30

What is the cognitive interview?

Answer 30

• based on psychological understanding of memory
• report everything
• reinstate the context
• reverse the order
• change perspective
• enhanced cognitive interview

Question 31

What is the cognitive interview based on?

Answer 31

The cognitive interview (CI) is a technique developed by Fisher and Geiselman (1992) and is based on Tulving’s (1974) theory that there are several retrieval paths to each memory.

This means memory not available through one pathway may be available through another.

Fisher and Geiselman (1992) claim that EWT could be improved if the police use techniques based on psychological insights into how memory works.

They called it the cognitive interview to indicate its foundation in cognitive psychology.

Rapport (understanding) is established with the interviewee.

Question 32

Why must witnesses report everything?

Answer 32

Witnesses are encouraged to include every detail of an event, even if it seems irrelevant or the witness is not confident about it.

Seemingly trivial details could be important and may trigger other memories.

Question 33

Why is the context reinstated?

Answer 33

The witness returns to the original crime scene ‘in their mind’ and imagines the environment (e.g. the weather, what they could see) and their emotions (e.g. what they felt).

This is based on the concept of context-dependent forgetting. Cues from the context may trigger recall.

Question 34

Why is the order of events reversed?

Answer 34

Events are recalled in a different chronological order (e.g. from the end back to the beginning, or from the middle to the beginning).

This prevents people from using their expectations of how the event must have happened rather than the actual events.

It also prevents dishonesty (harder to produce an untruthful account if it has to be reversed).

Question 35

Why is the perspective changed?

Answer 35

Witnesses recall the incident from other people’s perspectives. How would it have appeared to another witness or to the perpetrator?

This prevents the influence of expectations and schema on recall. Schema are packages of information developed through experience. They generate a framework for interpreting incoming information.

Question 36

What is the enhanced cognitive interview?

Answer 36

Fisher et al. (1987) developed additional elements of the cognitive interview.

This includes a focus on the social dynamics of the interaction (e.g. knowing when to establish and relinquish eye contact).

The enhanced cognitive interview also includes ideas such as reducing the eyewitness’s anxiety, minimising distractions, getting the witness to speak slowly, and asking open-ended questions. Also, use the language of the eye-witness. This leads to less false memories.

Question 37

What are the strengths of the cognitive interview?

Answer 37

• some elements of the full cognitive interview are useful
• there is support for the effectiveness of the enhanced cognitive interview (Kohnken’s meta-analysis and Geiselman’s blue rucksack study)
• relaxed environment, no distractions, no leading questions
• the enhanced cognitive interview is useful when interviewing children or people with high levels of anxiety who may struggle with the cognitive interview

Question 38

What are the weaknesses of the cognitive interview?

Answer 38

• it is time-consuming
• research may be unreliable because of variations of the cognitive interview
• it produces an increase in inaccurate information

Question 39

Which elements of the full cognitive interview are useful?

Answer 39

Milne and Bull (2002) found that each individual element of the cognitive interview was equally valuable.

However, they also found that a combination of ‘report everything’ and ‘context reinstatement’ produced better recall than any of the other techniques individually.

So at least these two elements should be used to improve police interviewing of eyewitnesses even if the full cognitive interview isn’t used.

Question 40

What support is there for the effectiveness of the enhanced cognitive interview?

Answer 40

A meta-analysis by Kohnken et al. (1999) combined data from 50 studies.

The enhanced cognitive interview consistently provided more correct information than the standard interview used by police.

Studies like this indicate that there are real practical benefits to the police of using the enhanced version of the cognitive interview.

Question 41

Why is the cognitive interview time-consuming?

Answer 41

Police are reluctant to use cognitive interview because it takes much more time than the standard police interview. More time is needed to establish rapport with the witness to allow them to relax.

Kebbell and Wagstaff (1997) point out that the cognitive interview also requires special training and many forces have not been able to provide more than a few hours.

This means it is unlikely that the ‘proper’ version of the cognitive interview is actually used (which may explain why police have not been that impressed by it).

Question 42

How do variations of the cognitive interview make the research unreliable?

Answer 42

Studies of the effectiveness of the cognitive interview inevitably use slightly different techniques.

Different researchers may use variations on the cognitive interview or enhanced cognitive interview, and police forces evolve their own methods.

This means it is difficult to draw conclusions about the cognitive interview in general.

Question 43

How does the cognitive interview produce an increase in inaccurate information?

Answer 43

The techniques of the cognitive interview aim to increase the amount of correct information recalled, but the recall of incorrect information may also be increased.

Kohnken et al. (1999) found an 81% increase in correct information but also a 61% increase in incorrect information (false positives) when the enhanced cognitive interview was compared to a standard interview.

The increase in correct information implies that police should continue to use the cognitive interview. However, the results also suggest that police need to treat all information collected with caution.

Question 44

Who were Johnson and Scott (1976)?

Answer 44

Volunteers in a lab setting witnessed a row in either low anxiety (no weapon involved) or high anxiety (bloody knife).

The level of external (ecological) validity was medium. It was an artificial setting but within that it was staged as a real-life event.

Low anxiety associated with high accuracy of EWT. Anxiety has a negative effect on recall.

Good control over variables, so high internal validity.

Ethical issues as they induced anxiety. The study may test surprise rather than anxiety.

Question 45

Who were Yuille and Cutshall (1986)?

Answer 45

Witnesses to a real-life shooting in which two men were shot, one fatally. They were interviewed 4-5 months after the incident and their account compared with original one.

Levels of external (ecological) validity were high as the participants had experienced real anxiety in an everyday setting.

High anxiety associated with high accuracy of EWT. Anxiety has a positive effect on recall.

Used real witnesses so comparisons of accuracy of EWT over several months can be tested in a valid way.

Not all witnesses agreed to be re-interviewed so it may not be a representative sample of the original participants (e.g., those who were traumatised the most might not wish to be re-interviewed).

Question 46

Who were Parker et al. (2006)?

Answer 46

Interviewed people affected by a hurricane and saw if there was a relationship between memory of events and the amount of damage to their homes (a measure of anxiety).

The level of external (ecological) validity was high as the participants had experienced real anxiety in an everyday setting.

Moderate levels of anxiety (neither high nor low) associated with high accuracy of EWT. Anxiety can have a positive or negative effect on recall depending on how extreme it is.

The study did not only investigate high and low levels of anxiety but moderate levels too, enabling a better understanding of the relationship between anxiety and witness accuracy.

Anxiety was operationalised by measuring the amount of damage done to homes. This may not reflect their experienced anxiety.

Question 47

Who were Valentine and Mesout (2009)?

Answer 47

Visitors to a home labyrinth were divided into low anxiety and high anxiety on basis of heart monitor. They were asked to describe an individual encountered in the labyrinth.

The levels of external (ecological) validity were fairly high. It was a real-life setting though the anxiety was not caused by anything really threatening.

Low anxiety associated with high accuracy of EWT. Anxiety has a negative effect on recall.

Two measures of anxiety including heart monitor makes it an accurate measure of anxiety.

Quasi-experiment so no random allocation to conditions and participant variables may have acted as confounding variables.

Question 48

What are the aims of cognitive interview (Geiselman et al.)?

Answer 48

• improve the effectiveness of interviews when questioning witnesses
• gain greater quantities of and more accurate information
• apply the results of psychological research which showed that memory is not like a video camera but an active process
• this may help to avoid miscarriages of justice

Question 49

What are the 4 stages of the cognitive interview?

Answer 49

1. context reinstatement: recall the scene, the weather, what you were thinking and feeling
2. report everything: report every detail you can even if they seem irrelevant or trivial
3. recall from a changed perspective: describe the event as it would have been seen from different viewpoints
4. recall in reverse order: describe the event in reverse order

Question 50

What other features did Fisher et al. (1987) add?

Answer 50

• no distractions
• open questions
• eye contact
• use language of eyewitness
• reduce their anxiety and get them to speak slowly
• active listening
• no interruption

Question 51

How do cognitive interviews work?

Answer 51

1. context reinstatement: recalling how you felt and the context enhance recall (these details act as internal and external cues to recall) - retrieval failure theory
2. report everything: witnesses might not realise that some details are important and details (cues) might help them recall significant information - retrieval failure theory
3. recall from a changed perspective: encourages many retrieval paths and prevents access to schemas and their own experiences
4. recall in reverse order: when events are recalled in forward order, witnesses are more likely to only remember the first and last event, and reconstruct based on their schemas; if the order is changed, they are more accurate as they can remember information that didn’t originally stick out to them, and cannot access schemas