Contemporary study - Valentine T and Mesout J (2009) Flashcards

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1
Q

What was the aim of the Valentine and Mesout contemporary study?

A

To investigate the effect of stress on the accuracy of EWT whilst visiting the London Dungeons

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2
Q

What was the methodology (study type, sample, sampling method) of the Valentine and Mesout contemporary study? (3 points)

A

Type of study: Field experiment / Questionnaire

Sample: 56 pps
Males: 27
Females: 29

Sampling Method: Opportunity
Participants agreed to answer a questionnaire after the Dungeon experience for a reduced fee

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3
Q

What were the 3 IVs and the DV of the Valentine and Mesout contemporary study? (4 points)

A

IV1: Gender

IV2: Trait anxiety score
E.g. ‘I feel inadequate’

IV3: State anxiety score in Dungeon
E.g. ‘I was tense’

DV: Memory of the Dungeon

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4
Q

What was the procedure of the Valentine and Mesout contemporary study? (5 points)

A
  1. When participants were on the Dungeon tour, a ‘scary person’, dressed in a dark robe and painted pale with scars, jumped out at them and blocked their path
  2. After the tour, participants did 20-question (Likert scale of 1 to 4) questionnaires to calculate their trait and state anxiety scores
  3. Median score was taken to divide particpants into a high-state anxiety and a low-state anxiety group
  4. The participants were asked to identify the ‘scary person’ from a 9-person photograph line-up without guessing - they also had to report confidence in their decision (0-100)
  5. Other measurements were in a questionnaire which invited free recall and subsequently cued-recall e.g. height, weight, and ethnicity
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5
Q

What were the results and conclusion of the Valentine and Mesout contemporary study? (4 points)

A

Males made more correct identifications than females

Higher state anxiety led to a statistically significant decrease in accuracy - negative correlation with the number of correct descriptors in the questionnaire

Percentage of participants who correctly identified the scary person:
Scored below median state anxiety: 75%
Scored above median state anxiety: 17%

Conclusion: Being highly anxious reduces EWT accuracy

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6
Q

How generalisable is the Valentine and Mesout contemporary study? (3 points)

A

Participants had an even spread of genders (27M, 29F) - no gender bias within the study

However, participants had chosen to go to the Dungeon knowing it would be scary - may have had different reactions than those who don’t choose to visit scary environments

Not entirely representative of the human population

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7
Q

How is the Valentine and Mesout contemporary study reliable? (2 points)

A

Inter-rater reliability:
A panel of independent judges rated the descriptors given in the free-recall and cue-recall as either accurate or inaccurate

Somewhat standardised procedure:
+ Same scary person jumped at same position
+ Same questionnaire and line-up used after the Dungeon experience

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8
Q

How is the Valentine and Mesout contemporary study not reliable? (3 points)

A

Whether the methodology was reliable is up for debate

Field experiment - many situational variables uncontrolled, such as the other Dungeon tour members’:
+ Body positioning
+ Reactions

The method could produce inconsistencies

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9
Q

How applicable to real life is the Valentine and Mesout contemporary study? (4 points)

A

The study has important applications for real-life criminal trials in which the witnesses experience stress

The study discovered that the more state anxiety a person experiences during an event, the less likely they are to identify key features such as the identity of a scary person

It would be advantageous for police to adopt a Cognitive Interview for interviews for people who have experienced stress at a crime

The CI technique achieves 34% more accurate recall as opposed to the standard interview (Kohnken et al, 1999)

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10
Q

How internally valid is the Valentine and Mesout contemporary study? (3 points)

A

High internal validity due to state anxiety being operationalised and the score being validated

State anxiety scores were correlated with the change in HR (HR when walking ‘pre-test’ vs HR when in the dungeon)

Positive correlation indicated a valid measure of state anxiety - assures that the participants were not giving socially desirable answers

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11
Q

How ecologically valid is the Valentine and Mesout contemporary study? (3 points)

A

Although being scared in the London Dungeons is not an everyday experience, the study was a field experiment in a natural setting

Participants didn’t know they were going to be asked to identify the scary person afterwards, just like an eyewitness would be unsuspecting of the task of identifying a person

The study’s high mundane realism makes demand characteristics less likely - more applicable to real life than EWT research done in a lab

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12
Q

How ethical was the Valentine and Mesout contemporary study? (4 points)

A

Participants consented to stress by choosing to be involved in a scary experience by initially visiting the Dungeon

Participants were protected from harm - they left the Dungeons under no more stress than they intended to leave it in

Slight degree of deception about the true aim of dungeon recall accuracy - wasn’t shared before they answered the questionnaire

However, the lack of demand characteristics, eliciting more natural and valid behaviour (benefits), outweighs the slight break of ethical conduct (costs)

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