Post event discussion Flashcards
(12 cards)
What is meant by post event discussion?
Post event discussion is where witnesses of an event discuss their accounts with each other
What is memory contamination?
When co-witnesses to a crime discuss and their EWT may become altered and distorted.
In memory contamination, why is memory altered and distorted?
This is because they combine information from other witnesses with their own memories meaning the memory of the event is changed
What is memory conformity?
Where witnesses go along with each other either to win social approval (NSI) or because they believe other witnesses are right and they are wrong
What is the difference between memory contamination and memory conformity?
unlike with memory contamination, the memory remains unchanged, but the accuracy of recall has been affected.
Rts post event discussion was conducted by…
Skagerberg and Wright
What did Skagerberg and Wright do?
-Showed participants two versions of a film clip of a mugging, one where the mugger’s hair was dark brown and in the other the mugger’s hair was light brown.
-ppts discuss clips in pairs, each having seen diff versions
What did Skagerberg and Wright find?
-It was found that often they did not report what they had heard from their co-witness, but rather it was a ‘blend’ of the two suggesting the mugger had ‘medium brown hair’ rather than dark or light.
Why does Skagerberg and Wright’s research support post event discussion?
This supports memory contamination during post-event discussion does occur, distorting the witness’ EWT rather than just conforming to their co-witness’ response
What is a weakness with the research into post-event discussion?
It lacks ecological validity
Why does research into post-event discussion like ecological validity?
Because research is conducted in a controlled environment making it difficult to generalise the findings
Why may it be difficult to generalise the findings of research into post event discussion?
In real life post event discussion may not affect the accuracy of EWT as there are consequences for witnesses reporting misinformation to the police or a court of law so their testimony may be less influenced by post event discussion as they are motivated to give accurate testimony
