cognition and law Flashcards

Question

ellis' composite study

Answer 1

composite images produced with the target person present were no better than those constructed from memory that were hand drawn hand drawn images have a better likeness than the composites

Answer 2

participants were trained until they could name a series of composite faces correctly eg bob, mathilda, the faces were then presented as pairs, one was the original bob and the other was a bob with an altered feature (different nose) the participants were then required to look at the different features and identify which was the correct feature from the faces they originally saw participants were able to identify which was he original bob and identify which feature changed however they found it difficult to identify the correct feature when it was not with the face isolated features are much harder to identify which supports the hollistic theory and can explain why composite systems that require the witness to choose features in isolation is of limited use

Answer 3

the witness is required to identify features in isolation before they can make up the entire face tanaka and farah's study shows how this can be a problem the ability to recognise faces more easily than separate features in isolation

Answer 4

efit in the uk - witnesses describe the person to the system and the operator builds up the features first and adds average components in where there are gaps in the description the witness views the whole face and states the changes that need to be made - this has shown to be an improvement on photofit likenesses under certain conditions, mostly where the target face is familiar to the witness

Answer 5

simultaneous and sequential

Answer 6

typically 8 foils and one suspect are presented at the same time which allows the witness to compare the options available this means theres a possibility of relative judgement where the witness just chooses the person most like their memory this means the witness is more likely to choose a perpetrator BUT can lead to a greater chance of false identifications

Answer 7

line up members are presented one by one and the witness states whether they match their memory of ht perpetrator or not this means they can only have an absolute judgement this means the witness is less likely to choose a perpetrator BUT there are less false identifications

Answer 8

the choice of wording in the question - people are less likely to make false identications when the authorative figure says "the suspect may or MAY NOT be present"

Answer 9

witnesses were asked to identify a suspect 1) "which of these is the person you saw?" 2) "the suspect may or may not be here" the rate of false identifications was much higher in condition 1) than 2)

Answer 10

devised the sequential line up to avoid the problem of relative judgements and encourages witnesses to make absolute judgement about whether or not each person in the line up matches their memory

Answer 11

sequential line up meta analysis sequential line ups reduce false identifications but the culprit is more likely to get away

Answer 12

appearance of the foils demand characteristics feedback

Answer 13

the foils and suspects must look at least a little similar | only in this way the identifications could have any validity

Answer 14

the police in charge may drop hints or the witness may pick up unintentional hints from the officer if they are directly involved in the case

Answer 15

if witnesses believe they made the right judgement and are confident - they are more likely to affect a trial

Answer 16

VIPER was developed by police easier to set up lineups can be done at home/hospital less biased by operator

Answer 17

sequential (absolute judgement) prodcedural variables such as the length of time the witness views each member of the line up are controlled less chance of demand characteristics database ensures the availability of a large number of foils very few VIPER lineups are cancelled will become the norm

Answer 18

``` post event contamination emotion weapon focus context expectation and stereotypes ```

Answer 19

memory of an event is adversely affected after the event. it can happen for a number of reasons, the most popular being questioning Questioning can distort memory: - Leading questions (influence recall) - Non existent items can be inserted into memory - deleting and replacing information can transform

Answer 20

two groups watched a car accident scene, the experimental group was asked "how fast was the car going when it passed the barn while travelling along the country road" and the control group were asked the truth "how was the car goin when it passed the stop sign" 17% of people in the experimental group reported seeing the barn which shows a non existent item can be inserted into a witnesses' memory

Answer 21

eyewitness identification is often unreliable, this means a single eyewitness can't be used to convict less weight is given to single eyewitness identifications and other sources of evidence are expected to be used to support the eyewitness report.

Answer 22

post event discussion between witnesses might lead to distortion of memory two groups were created and shown different pictures of a woman stealing a wallet and another of a woman with an accomplice when stealing the wallet. each participant was paired together (cond. A + cond. B). they found 79% of participant pairs tended to agree with eachother even though they had seen different images

Answer 23

studies show that memory can be contaminated after the event by the words used in questioning factors limiting the influence of leading questions on our memory for events, obvious misleading questions have no effect on memory less crucial details are more easily distorted than facts (easier to distort the detail about something else like a stolen item than the face of the robber)

Answer 24

anxiety caused by exposure to a traumatic event which may affect the accuracy of eyewitness recall. witnessing real crime is more stressful than lab studies so memory is even more affected? despite evidence on recall, yuille and cutshall showed that witnesses of a real life incident had remarkably accurate memories of a stressful event involving weapons even though two misleading questions were inserted by the research team

Answer 25

there are cases of real life recall where memory for an emotional event is accurate (flashbulb) misleading questions need not have the same effect as has been found in lab studies

Answer 26

a factor that relates to emotion and stress (yulle and cutshall study) witness' attention is drawn to the weapon they recall few other details Loftus: people focused on the video where a gun was present rather than when the customer just handed money

Answer 27

being in the same surroundings as where the event happened helps recall Malpass and Devine:a group given information about the room where they were a witness to vandalism found recall easier than the control group (memory and forgetting cues)

Answer 28

witness accounts often reflect commonly held stereotypes Howitt: 'different origins' were replaced with ' two black men' showing racial stereotypical racist assumptions

Answer 29

Cognitive interview: - reinstates the context of the crime for the witness by asking them about their general activities and day - witnesses are encouraged to report every single detail as it can act as a trigger - asked to recall in a different order (more likely to think aboout it) - report from different perspectives (more likely to think about it)

Answer 30

improves recall in many circumstances less effective and may lead to poor recall in young children under 6 years enhancing effect wears off other time cannot improve identification of a suspect

Answer 31

children are less accurate than adults and are much more susceptible to suggestion less able to detach memories experienced by others

cognition and law Flashcards

(55 cards)