Zusammenfassung der Ressource
AS Psychology: Eye Witness Testimony
Revision
- Loftus & Palmer (1974): Research of Automobile Destruction
- Experiment One: LEADING QUESTIONS
- Testing the reliability of the Eye Witness
Testimony; can it be modified by leading
questions?
- IV: Verbs used in the question* (Smashed,
Collided, Bumped, Hit, Contacted) // DV: Sample
Group (7 Students)
- The more powerful the verb, the higher the 'mph' given. 'Smashed'
had an average of 40.8mph, whilst 'Hit' averaged at 34.0mph
- Experiment Two: MISLEADING INFORMATION
- Can Misleading Information distort memory of events?
- IV: Original Question asked* //
DV: Interval between Q and A (1
week)
- Verb originally used continued to distort memory.
32% of 'Smashed' Group reported seeing broken glass
14% of 'Hit' Group reported seeing broken glass =
There was no broken glass.
- EVALUATION
- PROS
- Realistic-looking footage used
- Has external validity
- Police officers
know to ask less
biased questions
to Eye Witnesses
- CONS
- No extraneous variables
(Lab Experiment)
- American Students
used: Can't generalise
- Contrasting arguments on
why misleading Q's affected
participants:
- Yuille & Cutshall (1986):
Real life; shop owner shot
and killed thief; 21
witnesses; 1 witness
questioned by
researchers; witness
could accurately recall
event 4 months after
shooting
- Effect of AGE on EWT
- Cohen & Faulkner (1989)
- Showed middle-aged and elderly PP's footage of a kidnapping:
Group 1 - Received narrative account with accurate info //
Group 2 - Received narrative account with misleading info //
Elderly people were more susceptible to misleading info
- Evaluation
- Lab Conditions: Participants
aware of lack of consequence
for actions or mistakes; lacks
ecological validity
- Potential Investigator Effects:
Tone/Body language of narrator
could've influenced results
- Poole & Lindsay (2001)
- 1. Children aged 3 - 8 shown science
demonstration; parents then read them
a book containing elements of the
demonstration; children incorporated
new information into original memory;
2. Children were asked where the info
they received came from (source
monitoring); Older children could tell
apart whilst younger children were
much poorer at it.
- Evaluation
- Informed Consent: Received from parents +
parental involvement = children around familiar
people and less susceptible to investigator effects
- Application to real life:
Ensure witness doesn't hear
new information
- Effect of ANXIETY on EWT
- Yerkes-Dodson Law:
- Loftus: Weapon Effect (1979) - Does
weapon-induced anxiety take
attention away from a person's
appearance?
- Participants sat outside lab, listening
to conversation of people inside //
Group 1: Peaceful conversation; man
emerges w/greasy hands & pen //
Group 2: Hostile conversation; sounds
of damage to furniture; man emerges
with bloodstained knife // 50 photos
given to each group to recall face of
man. G1 better than G2 (focus was on
knife)
- PRO: Genuine responses; ecological
- CON: Lack of Extraneous
Variables; no distractions from
conversation; no ecological
- Christianson & Hubinette (1993):
Real events involving high levels of
stress will create a more accurate,
detailed and long lasting memory.
- Survey; 110 participants - all
witnesses of real bank robberies; 2
groups: 1)Bystanders & 2)Victims //
2) had better recollection than 1); 2)
exposed to higher levels of stress.
- PRO: Real Life; real danger and
real reactions; ecological
- CON: Unsure of distance between
event & survey: 110 to all witness bank
robberies = unlikely; memory
potentially strengthened in various
ways (i.e - police interviews)