Zusammenfassung der Ressource
EWT
- FACTORS AFFECTING ACCURACY OF EWT
- AGE
- Yarmey (1993) Varying age groups, participants stopped and asked to recall physical
characteristics of young woman they had spoken to for 15s just 2mins earlier.
- Concluded age of eye-witness does not affect accuracy of
recall.
- More reliable as repeated. More
representative – larger sample sign.
Higher ecological validity.
- Cannot genralise findings to children
- USE OF LEADING QUESTIONS
- Loftus & Palmer (1974).
Study 1
- Concluded the 9mph difference between verbs
smashed & contacted suggests leading questions
does affect accuracy of EWT recall.
- AIM: Test if use of
leading questions
affected memory
recall.
- Process: 5 groups, shown video of car accident.
Asked same question with key word changed. What
speed were the cars going when they ??? each other.
Words used - hit, smashed into, bumped into, made
contact with, collided with.
- Low ecological validity – stress levels not
the same. Cannot generalise – it’s all
students. Cannot generalise – small
sample size.
- Loftus & Palmer (1974).
Study 2
- Concluded that memory is altered by leading
questions.
- Process: Students put into 3 groups. Shown
video of car accident. Ask back a week later
and asked the LEADING QUESTION: "Did you
see any broken glass?" (There was no broken
glass!)
- Cannot generalise.
Low ecological validity.
- WEAPONS EFFECT
- LOFTUS & BURNS - Participants asked to sit
outside laboratory where they thought they were
over-hearing a genuine argument. One condition
heard a friendly conversation & a man walking out
with a greasy pen. Second condition heard a heated
argument & a man walk out with a bloody knife.
Participants then given 50 photos and asked to
identify man.
- Over-heard friendly conversation – better
recall (49%). Over-heard argument – 33%.
High stress = less accurate recall.
- CHRISTIANSON & HUBINETTE (1993) -
Survey of 110 people who had witnessed
a genuine bank robbry.
- Found - Highest stress levels recalled
more accurate. Concluded - in real
incidents involving high stress levels,
memory proved to be more accurate
and detailed.
- High ecological validity.
- YUILLE & CUTSHALL (1986) - 13 witnesses to a
real-life robbery. Thief stole items and money
then got shot 6 times.
- Found – Cases of real-life recall where memory for an anxious/stressful
event is accurate. And misleading questions may not have the same
effect as found in lab studies (e.g. Loftus and palmer).
- Witnesses who experienced the
highest levels of stress were
actually closer to the event –
this may have helped with their
accuracy of their memory
recall.
- Reconstructive
Memory
- Bartlett – “Reconstructive Memory is
putting the pieces of info from a memory
together – but often in the wrong order,
with bits added or missing.
- Schema Driven Error – When
reconstructing events we sometimes add
in extra info that didn’t happen.
- COGNITIVE INTERVIEWS
- Cognitive interview is a structured interview
which follows a four stage procedure.
- CR
- RE
- CP
- RO
- Context Reinstatement - Reinstate the context in
which the incident happened. Recall the scene,
weather, what you were thinkin, feeling and the
preceding events.
- Report Everything - Every little detail,
even if it seems trivial.
- Change Persepctive - Recall the event from different
people's viewpoints.
- Reverse Order - Recall in different orders,
moving backwards and forwards in time.