Key question Flashcards
What is the key question?
How reliable is eye witness testimony?
What is an EWT?
The recalled memory of an incident that an individual has - involves the individual providing a statement as to what they witnessed
What is the impact of an unreliable EWT?
Miscarriage of justice
Example of EWT?
Bobby Leaster - accused of murdering a shop owner after being identified by the shop owners wife as the murderer, and he was sentenced to life in prison - 16 years after, new evidence proved that he was innocent
How does Bartlett link to EWT?
He discusses the reconstructive memory theory about how we fill in the gaps in our memory with our schemas
What do Loftus and Ketcham say about EWT?
45% of innocent individuals are wrongly convicted when EWT is used - EW have a strong influence on the jury
How do Loftus and Palmer link to EWT?
Ppts were asked what speed the car was going when it crashed and changed the verb for each ppt. This significantly impacted the speeds that the ppts suggested, showing how leading questions can impact a person’s memory
How do Yuille and Cutshall link to EWT?
In their naturalistic study, real EWT had great accuracy in their recall and were not influenced by leading questions, even with a prolonged period of time between the event and recalling it
