Factors affecting the accuracy of eye witness testimony Flashcards
(16 cards)
Reconstructive memory + schemas
-Memories are not accurate recordings of events, it is reconstructed during recall, which can lead to errors (confabulations)
-Recalling memories are influenced by schemas; memories change to fit an individual’s pre-existing bias
Leading questions (factors affecting the accuracy of eye witness testimony)
-Leading questions are questions that imply a particular respons; this can influence how a memory is recalled. This can be due to the memory genuinely changing (substitution bias), or due to the emotional pressure to give a particular response (response bias)
Post event discussion
-Post event discussion is when the recalling of events of a witness alters the accuracy of recall by other witnesses
-This could be due to memory conformity, with witnesses going along with other accounts in order to gain social approval
Loftus and Palmer (1974) (Positive evaluation for the influence of misleading information on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony)
-Loftus and Palmer (1974) showed participants a video of a car crash before asking them “how fast were the cars going before they ____ into each other”.
-The missing verb was changed (to smashed, collided, hit, bumped, and contacted)
-It was found that the more extreme the missing verb was, the faster the estimations of MPH were
-This suggests that misleading information in the form of leading questions influences the accuracy in recall of eye witness testimonies
Loftus and Palmer (1974) follow up study looking (“can you see glass”)
-Loftus and Palmer conducted a follow-up study where they showed participants a video of a car crash without any glass and asked them how fast the cars were going involving the verb “hit” or “smashed”
-One week later, the participants were given a questionnaire where one of the questions was “did you see glass”
-It was found that those in the “smashed” condition were twice as likely to say yes compared to those in the “hit” condition
-This suggests that misleading questions in the form of leading questions have a long term influence on memories/recall and that the memory is actually changed through substitution, rather than response bias
Gabbert et al (2003)
-Gabbert et al (2003) showed pairs of participants a video of a crime, but showed each member of the pair the crime from a different perspective to the other with unique information provided to each
-It was found that 71% of the pairs that were allowed to discuss events after seeing the video included aspects of the crime that were not available to them from their perspective, compared to 0% from the group that would not permitted to discuss after the event
-This suggests that post event discussion can cause witnesses to change their recall of events to match the account of another witness
-This can be to gain social approval (memory conformity)
Anxiety
-Anxiety is an intense heightened state of mental arousal that is usually accompanied with physiological changes such as increased heart rate
Arguments that anxiety decreases recall (weapons effect)
-Some argue that high levels anxiety reduces recall of criminal’s faces
-One explanation for this is the weapons effect: When a weapon is present it causes the witness anxiety, therefore the witness is more likely to hyperfocus on the weapon than the face of the criminal, reducing recall of the criminal’s face
Arguments that anxiety increases recall
-Some psychologists argue that high levels of anxiety increase recall, as witnesses are more alert and aware of their situation/surroundings. Additionally, the high levels of emotion can improve the encoding of the memory
Yerks and Dodson law of arousal
-Yerks and Dodsons law of arousal suggests that low anxiety causes low recall, as the witness is not concentrated
-However, as anxiety increases, the witness becomes more alert and aware of the situation, resulting in increased recall
-At a certain point, the witness becomes too anxious and stressed, therefore they do not pay attention and the accuracy of eye witness testimony is low
Johnson and Scott (1976) research evaluation supporting weapons focus
-Johnson and Scott (1976): Naive participants, waiting to take part in a lab experiment were placed outside a lab and could either hear 1) A normal conversation about equipment repair and a man walking out with a pen and greasy hands, or 2) A hostile conversation, glass breaking, furniture knocked over, and a man leaving the room with a knife and hands covered with blood
-When participants were asked to identify the man out of 50 photographs, it was found that participants in the condition with the pen had a higher recall at (49%) compared to the lower 33% in the condition with a knife
-This supports the weapons effect theory, as participants experienced anxiety from the weapon and focused more on the knife than the face of the criminal
Yuille and Cutshall (1986) research evaluation real world shooting
-Yuille and Cutshall (1986) interviewed 13 witnesses to a real world deadly shooting four months after the event
-They found that the witnesses had not been affected by misleading information and that those who experienced the most stress (closer to the shooter) produced recall with higher accuracy compared to those that were further away (less stress)
-This suggests that misleading information and anxiety are not significant problems in real-world eye witness testimony
Additional evaluations (positive of research into EWT) real world application
-Research into eyewitness testimonies has real-world applications, for example, the development of the cognitive interview; this is a technique sometimes used in police investigations to reduce the influence of schemas on the accuracy of recall
Negative evaluation of research into EWT (lab environments low external validity criticised for lack of consequences)
-Much of research conducted on eye witness testimonies takes place in controlled lab conditions with artificial taskes; this reduces the external validity of results
-research into eye witness testimonies conducted in a lab environment e.g Loftus and Palmer, have been criticised as the participants are aware that there is a lack of consequences for an incorrect eye witness testimony
-there might be a higher accuracy of eyewitness testimonies in a real-world court case scenario, as the witness is aware that if their eye witness testimony is incorrect, it could lead to a wrongful conviction
Negative evaluation of research into eye witness testimonies (Continuing on lab studie demand characteristics)
-Lab studies can lead to demand characteristics from participants, and they may answer questions in a way that they think will help the researcher or match the research hypothesis
-For example in the case of researching leading questions, participants may alter their answer to try to “help” the researcher, as opposed to answering the question genuinely (response bias)
Negative evaluation of research into eye witness testimonies (ethical issues)
