Factors affecting the accuracy of EWT

Question 1

What are the two main factors affecting EWT?

Answer 1

Misleading information
Anxiety

Question 2

What two categories come under misleading information?

Answer 2

Leading Questions
Post Event Discussion

Question 3

What is a leading question?

Answer 3

A question that wrongly implies something about an event or crime, such as ‘did you see the bike?’ implies that there was a bike

Question 4

How does a leading question affect the accuracy of EWT?

Answer 4

This affects the accuracy as it contaminates the witness’ memory and so they recall inaccurate information

Question 5

Who did research into leading questions?

Answer 5

Loftus and Palmer

Question 6

What was the aim of Loftus and Palmer’s research?

Answer 6

To investigate whether the phrasing of a question can affect an individuals witness of an event

Question 7

What was the method of Loftus and Palmer?

Answer 7

Lab experiment

Question 8

What was the sample of Loftus and Palmer?

Answer 8

45 split into groups of 5

Question 9

What was the procedure of Loftus and Palmer?

Answer 9

All ppts were shown the same video of a car crashing into another one and were asked a leading question with a different verb
Smashed, hit, collided, bumped, contacted
‘How fast were the cars going when the cars …. each other?’

Question 10

What were the verbs used in Loftus and Palmer?

Answer 10

Smashed, hit, collided, bumped, contacted

Question 11

What was the question asked in Loftus and Palmer?

Answer 11

‘How fast were the cars going when the cars …. each other?’

Question 12

What were the findings of Loftus and Palmer?

Answer 12

ppts guessed a higher mean for the cars that smashed in comparison to those that contacted

Question 13

What was the conclusion in Loftus and Palmer?

Answer 13

The wording of a question can influence a ppts memory of an event

Question 14

What is the strength of research into leading questions?

Answer 14

It has led to practical applications

Question 15

What practical applications does research into leading questions have?

Answer 15

Led to improvements in the criminal justice system and the development of the cognitive interview

Question 16

What part of leading questions led to the development of the cognitive interview?

Answer 16

Avoids leading questions by instead using open questions to trigger information to improve recall
This means that there is a higher accuracy of EWT

Question 17

What is a criticism of Loftus and Palmer’s research?

Answer 17

Lacks mundane realism

Question 18

What is meant by post event discussion?

Answer 18

Where witnesses of an event discuss it after it occurred together

Question 19

What are the two ways in which post event discussion reduces the accuracy of EWT?

Answer 19

Memory contamination
Memory Conformity

Question 20

What is memory contamination?

Answer 20

When co-witnesses discuss the event and their information gets combined, which then alters the memories of the event to be inaccurate

Question 20

What is memory conformity?

Answer 20

Witnesses conform to what other witnesses say in order to gain social approval or they believe that the other witness is right, whilst they are wrong

Question 21

Research to support post event discussion was conducted by who?

Answer 21

Skagerburg and Wright

Question 22

What was the procedure of Skagerburg and Wright’s research?

Answer 22

Showed ppts two versions of a mugging, one where the mugger had dark brown hair, the other where he had light brown hair
Ppts had to discuss what they saw in pairs, each haven seen a different version
It was found that their report was a combination of what they saw, that he had medium brown hair.

Question 23

What is a weakness of Skagerburg and Wright’s research?

Answer 23

Done in a controlled environment so the outcome of EWT isn’t important as it would be in real life

Question 24

What is meant by anxiety?

Answer 24

A strong emotional and physical state that affects EWT

Question 25

Why does anxiety affect EWT?

Answer 25

Extreme anxiety has been found to negatively impact the accuracy of EWT as witnesses only focus on certain aspects of the event so their recall is limited

Question 26

What was the aim of Johnson and Scott's research?

Answer 26

To investigate the effects of anxiety on accuracy of EWT

Question 27

Who did research for anxiety?

Answer 27

Johnson and Scott

Question 28

What was the method of Johnson and Scott?

Answer 28

Lab experiment

Question 29

What was the procedure of Johnson and Scott?

Answer 29

Ppts either placed in high or low anxiety condition High anxiety condition - weapon focus, ppts heard an argument and sound of breaking glass, and a man holding a knife covered with blood walked out of a room Low anxiety condition - ppts heard an argument and a man holding a pen with grease walked out of the room Ppts had to then identify the man using 50 photographs

Question 30

What were the findings of Johnson and Scott's research?

Answer 30

Ppts in low anxiety accurately identified man 49% of time Ppts in high anxiety accurately identified man 33% of time

Question 31

Conclusion of Johnson and Scott

Answer 31

Anxiety caused weapon focus, so ppts focus on a certain aspect of the event, meaning their recall was limited, due to the fear of the situation

Question 32

Who is research to contradict Johnson and Scott by?

Answer 32

Christianson and Hubinette

Question 33

What was the procedure of Christianson and Hubinette?

Answer 33

They interviewed 58 real life witnesses of a bank robbery where some were directly threatened

Question 34

What were the findings of Christianson and Hubinette?

Answer 34

Recall was over 75% accurate across all witnesses, with those being directly threatened having even more accurate accounts

Question 35

Why do the findings of Christianson and Hubinette contradict Johnson and Scott?

Answer 35

Real life example of where higher levels of anxiety helped the criminal to be caught