Loftus and Palamer- Evaluate Social Implications A03

Question 1

What are the social implications that can be used for Loftus and Palmer’s research?

Answer 1

Savings on criminal justice system
Health dangers of leading questions (Steve Titus)
Cognitive Interviews

Question 2

Paragraph 1- savings on the criminal justice system (STRENGTH)

Answer 2

P- Enables huge savings to be made by the criminal justice system

E.g- financial costs £124 billion on retrials and compensation paid to wrongly convicted as a result of eyewitness testimony & leading questions

E- Crim justice system now has evidence that memory can be altered by leading Q’s
- This means, won’t solely rely on eyewitness testimony, less false convictions, less money spent on compensation and retrials

Question 3

Paragraph 2- Aware of health dangers of leading Q’s -Steve Titus (STRENGTH)

Answer 3

P- Enables society to be aware of the health dangers of using leading Q’s
- leading Q’s could lead to inaccurate testimonies

E.g- Steve Titus
- misidentified as rapist
- car and appearance were similar
- misidentified in the line up “that ones the closest”
- prison 1 Yr, died of stress induced heart attack at 35

E- Society warned about health dangers means less reliance on eyewitness testimony
- Validity of eyewitness testimony should be questioned because it has consequences

Question 4

Paragraph 3- Cognitive interview (STRENGTH)

Answer 4

P- Enabled development of cognitive Interview technique

E.G- L&P shown leading Q’s can alter/distort the memory of eyewitnesses

E- Cog int
- Doesn’t use leading Q’s
- PPts freely recall events
- Asked to recall events in reverse and another perspective
- consistency
Geiselman et al (1985) found average number of correctly recalled facts for cog int was 41.2 compared to 29.4 for standard int showing the use of cognitive ints are more effective