EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY Flashcards
The three stages of memory
Encoding
Storage
Retrieval
Encoding memories
How information is taken (and stored) in memory
Based on limited attentional resources (i.e. distractions) so not all information gets stored
Other factors that may affect your ability to encode a memory:
- Prior knowledge of the event
- Duration of the event
- Repetition of the event
- Stress (cortisol) levels at the time of the event affect successful encoding of memory (high levels of cortisol in body inhibit ability to encode memories).
Storage of memories
Encoded items go into short-term memory
> a lot of things can go wrong in this process (not all memories survive)
If the memory survives the limited capacity of the brain, inability to rehearse everything and intervening experiences, then they pass into long-term memory.
Retrieval of memories
Enhances recall
- motivations to recall
- desire to cooperate with the questionner
- understanding what is important to recall
Unfortunately, the factors that enhance your ability to remember an event can often be the factors that prevent you from successfully remembering all the details.
The different parts of memory - recognition and recall
RECOGNITION - doesn’t require the retrieval of the details of items from memory because they are provided
RECALL - given nothing - participant is asked to describe the event or list all study items that he or she can remember.
Various different types of memory - episodic and semantic
EPISODIC: where personal events are stored
SEMANTIC: general knowledge e.g. facts, places, names - no personal context
Retrieval clues
Retrieval cues activating a stored memory = synergistic ecphony.
What are SCRIPTS
- Generalised event representations
- Used for everything
- A predetermined template for an event that might happen
- There is a ‘slot’ for each expectation in an event.
Useful, BUT they may also change your interpretation of what might have happened.
Your scripts become more and more embellished as you grow up and learn more about the world.
Scripts - congruity and mismatch - development of memory
Congruence of an event with your script-based knowledge = likely to retrieve it accurately.
Mismatch between an event and your expectation = using expectation to guide your memory of the event = preventing accurate recall.
Scripts - Age x Scripted knowledge - development of memory
Scripts develop with age
Preschool children are more vulnerable to the negative effects of script-based knowledge than elementary school children.
Preschool children are unable to differentiate between a special event and a scripted event.
What is strategy development
ie. chunking to remember your phone number.
Ones that most children would/are taught to use = mnemonics.
Rehearsal = repetition Organisation = grouping into meaningful chunks of information Elaboration = visual or verbal connections between words.
Children’s eyewitness testimonies can be false because:
Lying - intentionally changing the truth due to an inability to remember events.
Conforming - unintentionally distorting the truth about an event they do remember.
What is SUGGESTIBILITY?
The influence of social and cognitive factors on encoding, storage and retrieval of memories.
If a child remembers an event that happened to them directly, they will be less suggestible.
Suggestibility/personality?
Suggestibility as a personality trait that we lose as we get older, but in some cases, people hang on to it.
As children get older, they become less suggestible.
Is suggestibility ecologically valid?
Children may have an internal mechanism to protect themselves i.e. if it’s something bad.
Children aren’t very suggestible when talking about inappropriate touching or sexual abuse (they tend to have a strong memory for serious events)
H/E, other studies suggest that young children can be a bit suggestible and this can lead to wrongful convictions.
