Bartlett: memory is not always
a complete reproduction of an
event. We reconstruct various
pieces of info and use
schemas to fill in the blanks
Schemas are small packets of
information that we build up
about the world that helps us
make sense of it
Carmichael: Drawing
of an object. P was
asked to draw either 'a'
or 'b'. Their visual
representations were
altered by language,
so a schema affected
our memory
Not a real life situation
Allport and Postman:
Invesitgated stereotypes.
Black man without knife
but P's recalled that he
did, shows that
stereotypes can effect
EWT
Not a real life situation
Tuckey and Brewer: video
of a bank robbery. P's were
better at remembering
stereotypical bank robbery
things "male robber,
getaway driver" showing
that stereotypes affect
EWT
P's were also good
at remembering
counter-stereotyped
information
Tuckey and Brewer,
Cohen and Allport and
Postman were all Lab
Experiments which do
not reflect real life.
Would P's react the
same way in a real-life
setting
Allport and Postman
only used white P's.
Can't generalise to
other cultures. Other
cultures may have
different schemas
Allport and Postman
took place in 1947.
This is old data,
schemas may have
changed over the
years
Ethical issues
within the studies.
Invasion of
privacy, lack of
informed consent
Leading Questions
Loftus and Palmer: found
that Leading Q's affect
EWT as they provide
'post-event' info which is
integrated with the
original percepton
Speed is complex
thing to judge, so
P's more prone to
be led by LQs
Loftus and Zanni: Did you see
a/the broken headlight? 7%
reported seeing 'a', 17%
reported seeing 'the'. LQs can
make Ps question whether
they actually saw somethin
Video, doesn't
reflect real life
Loftus: 98% of P's could
remember the colour of the
bag, and their statements
were not changed, even
when experienced to LQs
Colour is more
objective to
speed estimates
Alot of the studies are
in artificial settings.
Generalisability issues
Yullie and Cutshall: interviewed 13
people who witnessed a real life
robbery. Included to LQs and found
P's were not led by LQs which could
show that EWT is not affected by
LQs in real life situations
Cognitive interviews
have come about a result
of research into leading
questions. Successful
applications
The Role of Emotion
Does emotion improve
or impede memory?
Freud would say
repressed memories
which are high in emotion
would be blocked out if
they are too painful or
traumatic
Deffembauer: meta-analysis
on studies of EWT and found
that high stress had a
negative impact on recall
MacLeod: 379 EWT
reports of assualts
compared to crime with
no injury. No overall
difference between
accuracy of recall
suggesting emotion
does not make a
difference to recall
Issues with privacy
Christianson and
Hubinette: found
witnesses for real bank
robberies who had been
threatened had better
recall than onlookers
high ecological validity
Yullie and
Cutshall: emotion
enhances your
recall of an event
Brown and Kulik: flashbulb
memories, long lasting
memories which occur during
heightened emotion. Such as
JFK's assassination, 9/11 etc.
People are able to recall what
they were doing at the time
which supports the idea that
emotion improves memory
Odiniot: interviewed 14
witnesses of a robber. 84%
of information recalled was
correct, and those who
reported heightened
emotion had better recall
Talarico and Rubin: 54
students recalled
memories of 9/11 then of a
less emotional events.
Their recall (at periods of
1, 6 and 32 weeks) hardly
differed for each event
P's reported
their 9/11
recall as
much more
vivid
Loftus: Weapon Effect,
showed a series of slides of a
customer in a resturant. In one,
customer had a cheque book,
in the other a gun. P's were
less likely to identify the
customer if he had the gun,
which shows emotional scenes
can throw our EWT
Johnson and Scott: P's
heard an argument then
a man came in holding
a gun/grease-covered
pen. 49% in pen
condition identified the
man, 33% in gun
identified. This
supports Loftus study
higher
ecological
validity
More
emotionally
involved
Evaluation
Different people
experience different
emotion. How can
we generalise?
What is emotion?
Are we measuring
fear, anger, anxiety
Yerkes Dodson Curve
shows the relationship
between emotional
arousal and level of
performance
Weapon Focus doesn't
always have an effect.
Yullie and Cutshall found
weapon effect did not
happen
Weapon effect is
dependent upon the
length of time of the
event. Hostage
situations would give
the P longer to identify
the criminal