Factors affecting EWT

Question 1

which two factors affect EWT?

Answer 1

• anxiety
• misleading information

Question 2

what’s a false memory?

Answer 2

a memory that didn’t actually happen

Question 3

Bartlett (1932)

Answer 3

• a memory that is retrieved is unlikely to be the exact same as the original
• memories are reconstructions of events, influenced by schemas
• this can lead to false memories

Question 4

how does misleading information affect EWT?

Answer 4

• considering how memory applies to the reliability of EWT
• EWT is the ability to remember the details of events such as accidents and crimes
• misleading information consists of leading questions and post-event discussions between co-witnesses

Question 5

what’s a leading question?

Answer 5

when the way a question is phrased suggests a certain answer

Question 6

Loftus and Palmer (1974)

Answer 6

• participants watched film clips of car accidents and then answered questions about them
• in the critical question (leading questions) participants were asked to estimate how fast the cars were travelling - ‘About how fast were the cars travelling when they smashed into eachother?’
• ‘smashed’ suggests that the speed was fast
• there were five groups of participants, each was given a different verb in the critical question

Question 7

Loftus and Palmer (1974) - Findings

Answer 7

• the mean estimated speed was calculated for each group
• the verb ‘contacted’ resulted in a mean estimated speed of 31.8 mph
• the verb ‘smashed’ resulted in a mean estimated speed of 40.5 mph

Question 8

why do leading questions affect EWT - Response-bias explanation

Answer 8

• suggests that the wording of the question has no real effect on the participants’ memories
• the wording just influences how they decide to answer

Question 9

why do leading questions affect EWT - substitution explanation

Answer 9

• the wording of the leading question changes the participants’ memory of the film clip
• Loftus and Palmer conducted a second experiment to support this
• participants who were given the word ‘smashed’ were more likely to report seeing broken glass even though there was no broken glass
• the critical verb altered their memory of the accident

Question 10

what’s post-event discussion?

Answer 10

• occurs when there’s more than one witness
• witnesses discuss what they’ve seen
• this might influence the accuracy of each witness’ recall
• their EWT may become contaminated as they combine misinformation from other witnesses with their own memories

Question 11

Gabbert et al (2003)

Answer 11

• participants in pairs watched a video of the same crime but filmed from different point of view
• they could therefore see elements in the event that the other couldn’t
• both participants then discussed what they’d seen before individually completing a test of recall

Question 12

Gabbert et al (2003) - Findings

Answer 12

• 71% of participants mistakenly recalled aspects of the event that they didn’t see in the video but had picked up in the discussion
• in the control group where there was no discussion, 0% mistakenly recall aspects they didn’t see
• concluded that witnesses go along with each other to either win social approval or because they believe the other witnesses are right
• this is called ‘memory conformity’

Question 13

strength of misleading information - supported by research

Answer 13

• Loftus and Palmer (1974)
• Gabbert et al (2003)

Question 14

strength of misleading information - real life application

Answer 14

• consequences of inaccurate EWT can be very serious
• Loftus (1975) believes that leading questions can have such an effect that police need to be careful about how they phrase questions
• improving the legal system, appear in court trials as expert witnesses

Question 15

weakness of misleading information - artificial tasks

Answer 15

• watching clips of car accidents is very different to witnessing a real accident
• evidence suggests that emotions can have an influence on memory

Question 16

weakness of misleading information - individual differences

Answer 16

• there’s evidence that older people are less accurate than younger people
• Anastasi and Rhodes (2006) found that people aged 18-25 and 35-45 were more accurate than people aged 55-78 years
• all age groups were more accurate when identifying people of their own age group (own age bias)

Question 17

weakness of misleading information - demand characteristics

Answer 17

• argued that answers participants give in lab studies are the result of demand characteristics
• participants want to appear helpful to the researcher
• lowers validity of results

Question 18

weakness of misleading information - ethics

Answer 18

• distressing stimuli bring ethical concerns
• participants may have experienced traumatic car accidents

Question 19

what’s anxiety?

Answer 19

• state of emotional and physical arousal
• increased heart rate , tension, worry
• main criticism of EWT research is that it uses artificial scenarios that have no emotion
• real life events often have a high anxiety content which can have positive and negative effects on recall

Question 20

what’s the negative effect of anxiety on recall?

Answer 20

• anxiety can divert attention away from the important aspects of the event
• Loftus et al (1987) argued for a ‘weapon effect’
• witnesses to violent crimes focus on the weapon as it’s a source of anxiety
• negatively affects the ability to recall important details

Question 21

Loftus et al (1987) - the weapons effect

Answer 21

• found that if a person is carrying a weapon, witnesses focus on the weapon rather than the person
• this negatively affects their ability to recall facial details of criminals
• supports the idea that anxiety can divert attention away from important details

Question 22

Johnson and Scott (1976)

Answer 22

• participants were led to believe that they were taking part in a lab study
• whilst seated in the waiting room, participants heard an argument in the next room
• in the low anxiety condition, a man walked through the waiting room holding a pen
• in the high anxiety condition, the participants overheard the same argument accompanied by the sound of glass breaking
• a man then walked through holding a knife covered in blood
• later, participants picked the man from a set of 50 photos
• 49% in the low anxiety condition were able to identify him
• 33% in the high anxiety condition were able to identify him
• proves the weapon effect

Question 23

what’s the positive effect of anxiety on recall?

Answer 23

• the stress of witnessing a crime or accident creates anxiety through physiological arousal within the body
• the fight or flight response is triggered which increases our alertness and improves our memory of the event

Question 24

Yuille and Cutshall (1986)

Answer 24

• conducted a study of a real life shooting in a gun shop in Vancouver
• the shop owner shot a thief dead
• 13 of the witnesses agreed to take part in the study
• police interviews were conducted straight after the shooting and then 4-5 months later
• participants rated how stressed they felt at the time of the shooting using a 7 point scale
• their accounts were compared with the original police interviews
• found that the witnesses were very accurate and there was little change in accuracy after 5 months
• those who reported the highest levels of stress were the most accurate (88%) compared to 75% for the less stressed participants
• shows that increased stress leads to greater accuracy in recall

Question 25

what’s the Yerkes-Dodson inverted-U hypothesis?

Answer 25

- according to Yerkes and Dodson (1908), the relationship between emotional arousal and performance looks like an inverted U - this was applied to EWT - lower levels of anxiety produce less accurate recall - memory becomes more accurate as anxiety increases - however, there’s a point where the optimum level of anxiety is reached and this is the point of maximum accuracy

Question 26

weakness of anxiety - weapon focus effect may not be relevant

Answer 26

- may have tested surprise rather than anxiety - Pickel (1998) conducted a study where participants saw a video of a man carrying various objects in different settings - eyewitness accuracy was significantly worse in the more unusual conditions - this suggests weapon focus effect is due to unusualness rather than anxiety

Question 27

weakness of anxiety - field studies lack control

Answer 27

- researchers often interview real life eyewitnesses after the event - all sorts of things will have happened to the participants in the meantime that researchers have no control over (post event discussion, media) - these extraneous variable might affect accuracy of recall - the effects of anxiety might be impossible to access by the time the participants are interviewed

Question 28

weakness of anxiety - problems with lab studies

Answer 28

- most lab studies show participants a filmed (staged) crime - most participants will be aware that they’re watching a filmed crime, and might work out that they’re going to be asked questions about what they’ve seen - demand characteristics might affect the way participants respond (please you or screw you effect) - findings might not generalise to real life scenarios

Question 29

weakness of anxiety - ethical issues

Answer 29

creating anxiety in participants might be psychologically harmful