Eye Witness Testimony Flashcards
(8 cards)
What is a schema and how does it effect EWT
Schemas are internal mental repristentaions of the world and they cause us to interpret sensory information in a pre-set manner. Schemas affect the reliability of EWT as witnesses aren’t just recalinbg facts as they happened they are ‘reconstructing’ memeories according to Bartlett (1932)
Schemas affecting memory example
Bartlett told western cultural particants the story ‘war of the ghosts’ and it didn’t make sense from a cultural view point. Upon recalls memory of thr story was distorted to fit a western cucktrual view point. This demonstrates how memory can be affected by schemas.
What two key factors affect the accuracy of EWT
- leading questions
- post event discussion
Experiment to show leading questions
Lotus and Palmer got 45 students participants who were split into 5 groups who were shown a video of a car crash. All of the participants were asked to ”how fast were the cars going when they XXX each other” each group was given a different verb to fill in the blank: smashed, collided, bumped, hit or contacted. Results showed the more dramatic the verb the faster the estimate of speed. Shows response bias as the verb influenced the persons response.
L+P AO3 ecological validity
Ecological validity was low because it was in a lab expient and Ps knew they were taking part in an experiment. (High controlled) IRL situations there would be an element of surprise so you might not be paying attention, you would also feel emotion (fear, shock) which could affect your recall.
L+P AO3 Particoants
The particants were all students which means they might not reprsetivive of thr general population. This is because of their age and driving experience (they may not know how to drive/be fairly new so not be good at estimating speed) and educational experience (they may be used to paying attention and being tested). Not generalisable
L+P AO3 pracapp
Important practical applications in real life and specially the criminal justice system. Consuences of inaccurate EWT can be very serious. as it has influenced police questioning witnesses in the way they phrase their questions, and trying to avoid leading questions, on a smaller scale it can also be used with teachers asking questions to students in class.
Post event discussion expedient
Gabbert studied participants in pairs. Each participant watched a. Video of the same crime but filmed from different POVs. (Meaning each P could see elements in the event that others could not). Both participants then discussed what they had seen before individually completing a test of recall. Results showed that 71% of Ps mistakenly recalled aspects of the environment that they did not actually see. In a control group (zero discussion) there was 0% mistakes.
