Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony: Misleading Information; Post Event Discussion and Leading Questions

Question 1

What did Loftus and Palmer do

Answer 1

• participants watched clips of car accidents and then they were asked questions about it
• in a critical question, participants were asked how fast the cars were travelling and the verb changed from ‘hit, contacted, smashed’

Question 2

What did Loftus and Palmer find?

Answer 2

• the verb contacted resulted in a mean estimated speed of 31.8 mph

the verb smashed it was 40.5mph

Question 3

What did Loftus and Palmer conclude?

Answer 3

the leading question biased the eyewitness recall of an event

Question 4

What does the response-bias explanation suggest?

Answer 4

• the wording of the question has no real effect on the participants memories, but just influences how they decide to answer

Question 5

What did Loftus and Palmer second experiment find?

Answer 5

• the wording of the question affects the participants memory of the film clip and this was shown when the participants heard ‘smashed’ they reported seeing broken glass when there was none

Question 6

Post-event discussion

Answer 6

when co-witnesses discuss the events with each other and their testimonies may become contaminated. this is because they combine information which adds to their own memories

Question 7

what did Gabbert et al do?

Answer 7

• each participants watched a video of the same crime but filmed from different points of view and this meant each participants could see elements of the video that the others couldn’t
• they then discussed it with the other participant and then completed a test of recall

Question 8

What did Gabbert et al find?

Answer 8

• 71% of the participants mistakenly recalled aspects of the event that they did not see in the video but had picked up in the discussion
• in the control group there was 0%

Question 9

What did Gabbert et al conclude?

Answer 9

• memory conformity where witnesses often go along with each other to win social approval or because they believe the other witnesses are right and they are wrong

Question 10

What is a strength of ewt?

Answer 10

useful real-life applications

Question 11

How has research into leading questions led to useful applications?

Answer 11

• Loftus believes that leading questions can distort the the persons own memory so police officers must be careful when phrasing their questions
• also in court trials

Question 12

What is a limitation of Loftus and palmer’s study?

Answer 12

the tasks are artificial

Question 13

How are Loftus and Palmer’s study artificial?

Answer 13

• • they watched film clips of accidents

- this means they had a different experience from a real accident and thus lacks the stress of a real accident

Question 14

Why is Loftus and Palmer’s study artificial a limitation?

Answer 14

artificial tasks tell us very tilted about how leading questions affect ewt in real crimes and thus the study findings are questionable

Question 15

What is a weakness of Loftus and Palmer’s research?

Answer 15

• lacks ecological validity

Question 16

Why does Loftus and Palmer lack ecological validity?

Answer 16

• the participants watched a video of a car crash and witnessed the car crash from start to finish. However, in reports of car accidents witnesses rarely see the whole event as they are either directly involved or only see a small part of the event occurring in their peripheral vision

Question 17

what does Loftus and Palmer’s lack of ecological validity demonstrate?

Answer 17

experimental reductionism and thus their results do not reflect everyday car accidents as psychologists are unable to conclude if the effect of leading questions are the same outside the laboratory and therefore tells us very little about how leading questions affect eye witness testimonies in cases or real accidents or crimes