Eyewitness Testimony Flashcards
What was the method of experiment 1 and the results of Loftus and Palmer’s study (1974) on misleading questions?
Experiment 1-film of a multiple car crash, asked a series of questions ‘how fast do you think the cars were going when they hit?’ In different conditions, ‘hit’ was replaced with ‘smashed’ ‘collided’ ‘bumped’ or ‘contacted’
Participants given the word ‘smashed’ estimated the highest speed and those given the word ‘contacted’ gave the lowest estimate
What is eyewitness testimony?
The evidence provided by people who witnessed a particular event or crime, it relies on recall from memory
What was the experiment 2 and the results of Loftus and Palmer (1974) on misleading questions?
Participants were split into three groups. One was given the word ‘smashed’ another ‘hit’ and one had none. A week later they were asked ‘did you see any broken glass?’
There was no broken glass in the film but participants were more likely to say that they’d seen broken glass in the ‘smashed’ condition than any other
Give teo disadvantages of Loftus and Palmer’s (1974) study?
1) It was an artificial experiment in which p’s watch a video which is not as emotionally arousing as a real life event which potentially affects recall
2) the experimental design might lead to demand characteristics, reducing the reliability and validity of the experiment
Give the method, results and evaluation of a study where the age of the witness can affect the accuracy of recall?
Valentine and Coxon (1997)
3 groups of p’s(children, young adults and elderly) watched a video of a kidnapping and were asked leading and non leading questions about what they’d seen.
Elderly and children have more incorrect answers to non leading questions. Children were misled more by leading questions than adults or elderly.
Artificial experiment/lacks internal validity/seems like an experiment into how well people remember things from tv
Give a study that shows anxiety affects focus?(method, results and evaluation)
Loftus and Palmer (1979) studied weapon focus. Independent groups design, p’s heard a conversation in a nearby room. In condition 1 a man came out with a pen and grease on his hands and in the second a man came out carrying a knife covered in blood. P’s had to identify the man from 50 photographs. P’s in condition 1 were 49% accurate and in 2 were 33% correct. High ecological validity and ethics
Who developed the cognitive interview and why?
Geiselman et al (1984) to try to increase the accuracy of witnesses recall of events during police questioning
