Memory- Eyewitness Testimony

Front 1

What are the 2 types of misleading questions and what are they?

Back 1

Response Bias explanation- wording of a question doesn't have an effect on eyewitness memory of an event but can influence an answer given.

Substitution-wording a question does affect eyewitness memory it interferes with original memory distorting it's accuracy.

Front 2

Who was Loftus and Palmer and what did they study?

Give the procedure, findings and conclusion

Back 2

1974, 2 Psychologists, leading questions

45 PPT's were asked to watch a film of a car accident and were asked then about the speed.

crit question:

"How fast were the cars going when they hit each other"

five groups of PPT's give a different verb in the critical question: Hit,contacted,bumped, collided or smashed

Contacted- 31.8

Smashed- 40.5

Front 3

What are the 2 types of Post-event discussion?

Who conducted the study into it and when?

Back 3

Memory contamination-When co-witnesses discuss a crime, they mix information from other witnesses with their own memories.

memory conformity- witnesses go along with one another to seek social approval or because they believe the eye-witnesses are right.

Gabbert et al (2003)

Front 4

Name Gabbert et al's procedure and findings

Back 4

Paired PPT's watched a video of the same crime, but filmed so each could only see certain elements that the other could not. both the PPT's discussed what they had seen on the video before individuality completing a test of recall.

71% of the PPT's mistakenly recalled aspects of the event they did not see in the video but had picked up in the PED

In a control group there was no discussion and no errors.

Front 5

give a strength for research into misleading information.

Back 5

The research has led to important practical uses for police officers and investigators. it's important because of the consequences of inaccurate EWT can be very serious.

Loftus claims that leading Q's have such an impact on memory police officers habe to be careful how they phrase questions when interviewing eyewitness. Research into EWT is one area where psychologists can make important difference to the lives of real-people e.g. by imporoving the legal system and acting as expert eyewitness.

Front 6

Give a limitation to Loftus and Palmer's study into EWT

Back 6

artificial materials were used- as the PPTs watched clips which is very different from seeing it IRR. Yuille and Cutshall in 1986 found witnesses of traumatic real armed robbery have higher recall after 4 months showing artificial tasks tells little about how leading Q's affect EWT in real crimes or accident.

Front 7

How is there a limitation in individual differences in the accuracy of EWT?

Back 7

Anastasi and Rhodes (2006) found older people less accurate when giving eyewitness reports than younger people. Also found out all age groups were more accurate when identifying people of their own age group (own-age bias) research often uses younger people as the target to identifying so some age groups may seem less accurate but this isn't really the case

Front 8

How do lab studies of the EWT lead to demand characteristic?

Back 8

Research PPT's often want to be helpful so when asked a question they don't know they may try make up an answer instead of saying "I don't know". This challenges the validity of EWT research studies intend to measure accuracy of eyewitness memory but the answers eye-witnesses give may not actually reflect their memories.

Front 9

How do many studies into EWT lack external validity?

Back 9

Foster et al. (1994) argues what you remember as an eyewitness can have important consequences IRL but the same isn't true for research studies. real eyewitnesses search memory with more effort because of the real life consequences. this isn't true in research studies. Therefore EWT accuracy may be greater in the real-world because of the seriousness with which eyewitnesses undertake their role.

Front 10

Who said anxiety had a negative effect on recall?

What was the procedure for the experiment?

What were the findings?

Back 10

Johnson and Scott (1976)

PPT's sat in a waiting room believing they were going to take part in a lab study. each PPT heard an argument in the next rooom. low anxiety condition: a man walks out carrying a greasy pen.

high anxiety condition: heated argument followed by sound of breaking glass and man walks through carrying a paper knife covered in blood.

PPT's then asked to pick the man from a set of 50 photos.

49% of PPT's in low anxiety condition were able to identify him. high anxiety figure only got 33%

Front 11

How does tunnel theory explain Johnson and Scott's study?

Back 11

suggests witness attention focused on the bigger threat (weapon focus effect) because it's a bigger danger.

Front 12

Who said anxiety had a positive effect on recall?

What was their procedure? What was their findings?

Back 12

Yuille and Cutshall in 1986 suggested anxiety had a positive effect.

real life crime in a gun shop in canada. owner shot thief dead. 13/21 witnesses agreed to take part in the study.

PPt's interviewed 4-5 months after inncident, accounts compared to police interviews at the time, witnesses also reported how stressed they felt at the tim of the incident.

Witnesses were very accurate and there was little change seen after 5 months. some details though e.g. eye colour or age were less accurate.

PPt's who reported high stress reported 88% accurately than those who were less stressed (75%)

Front 13

How do you explain contradictory findings with EWT: Anxiety on memory

Back 13

"Inverted U thoery" or the Yerkes Dodson law. relationship between performance and arousal (stress) is a curvilinear relationship rahter than linear.

Deffenbacher found lower levels of stress produced lower leels of recall. recall accuracy increased with stress to an optimal point. where we see a drastic decline after.

Front 14

Give a limitation for Johnson and Scott's study

Back 14

may test surprise not accuracy. PPT's may focus on weapon because they're surprised at what they see rather than being scared.

Pickel et al. replicated the experiment but in a hairdressers with scissors,hand gun, wallet and raw chicken. EWT accuracy was lower for objects with high unusualness e.g. chicken and handgun so weapon focus effect may be due to unusualness rather than anxiety. therefore the study doesn't tell us anything specific on anxiety in relation to the memory

Front 15

Give a limitation of how lack of control on variables in EWT: anxiety studies

Back 15

Real-life witnesses are interviewed sometime after event. many things happen to them in the meantime research can't control e.g. reading media accounts or discussing the event with others (PED) these extraneous variables may cause inaccurate recall.

Front 16

Explain why ethical issues is a limitation in research into EWT:anxiety?

Back 16

creating anxiety in a PPT is potentially unethical-protection from harm issues (psychological harm) real life studies are beneficial because psychologists can interview eyewitnesses who have already witnessed an event there is no need to create it. Ethical issues don't challenge findings but question how psychologists conduct their research.

Front 17

Why is the "inverted U" too simplistic?

Back 17

Anxiety is difficult to define and measure because it has many elements, cognitive, behavioral,physical,emotional etc.

the inverted U suggests only 1 factor is linked to poor psychological performance (stress) this doesn't account for others e.g. effect of an emotional experience of witnessing a crime (e.g terror) on the accuracy of memory

Front 18

How do demand characteristics affect lab studies of anxiety?

Back 18

Most PPT's in controlled lab studies are aware they're watching a film (staged) crime for the reason of a study os some may work out they're going to be asked Q's on what they've seen so try and remember more to be "helpful" reducing the validity of research.

Front 19

Who created the Cognitive interview? what is it? Why did they come up with it?

Back 19

Fisher and Geiselman (1992) claimed EWT colud be improved if police use techniques based on psychological insights into how memory works.They call this the cognitive interview.

Front 20

What is rapport?

Back 20

Understanding is established with the interviewee.

Front 21

What are the 5 parts of the cognitive interview?

Back 21

report everything,reinstate the context, reverse the order, change perspective, enhanced cognitive interview.

Front 22

What is report everything?

Back 22

Witnesses are encouraged to include every detail of an event, even if it seems irrelevant or witness isn't confident about it. seemingly trivial details could be important and may trigger other memories.

Front 23

What is re-instate the context?

Back 23

returning the witness to the crime scene "in their mind" and imagines the enviroment based on concept of context-dependent forgetting. cues from context may trigger recall.

Front 24

What is reverse the order?

Back 24

events are recalled in different chronological order. preventing people using expectations of the how the event must have happened instead of actual events.

also prevents dishonesty (harder to produce an untruthful account if account has been reversed)

Front 25

What is change perspective?

Back 25

Witnesses recall the incident from another account e.g. the perpetrator preventing influence of expectations and schema on recall.

Front 26

What is Schema?

Back 26

Packages of infomation developed through experience generating framework for interpretting oncoming info i.e "must have happened" instead of what actually happened.

Front 27

What is Enhanced cognitive interview?

Back 27

Fisher et al in 1987 developed additional elements of the cognitive interview.

includes a focus on social dynamics of the interaction (e.g. knowing when to establish eye contact)

enhanced CI includes ideas to reduce eyewitness anxiety, minimising distractions , getting witness to speak slowly and asking open ended questions.

Front 28

give 2 strengths to the cognitive interview

Back 28

Milne and Bull (2002) found each individual element was equally valuable. However, they also found a combo of report everything and context re-in statement produced a better recall then any other technique individually so at least these 2 elements should be used to improve police interviewing of eyewitnesses even if the full CI isn't used.

A meta analysis by kohnelsen (1999) combined data from 50 studies. enhanced CI constantly provided more info than standard police interview. studies indicate there is a practical benefit to the police interview using enhanced versions of the CI

Front 29

Why is it a limitation to the CI a fact it's time consuming?

Back 29

Police are reluctant to use CI as it takes much more time than standard police interviews. more time is needed to establish a rapport with witnesses allowing them to relax. Kebbell and Nagstaff in 1997 point out CI requires special training which many forces haven't been able to provide so it's unlikely the "proper" version of CI is being used. explaining why police may not be overly impressed by it.

Studies of the effectiveness of the CI inevitably use slightly different techniques. Different researchers may use variations on the CI and police forces evolve their own methods. this means it's difficult to draw conclusions about the CI in general.

Front 30

Why is another limitation to the CI a fact it produces incorrect info?

Back 30

the techniques of CI have increased amount of correct info but also incorrect info. Kohenken (1999) found 81% increase in correct information but also a 61% increase in incorrect information (false positives) when the CI is compared with standard police interview.

This increase in correct info suggests police should adopt the CI however the results also suggest that police need to trat collected info with extreme caution.