Eyewitness Testimony

Eyewitness Testimony

1. Misleading information: Loftus and Palmer

   • 45 American students were showed a video clip of a car crash
   • After, they was asked how fast the car was going when the accident occurred.
   • They were asked using different verbs
     • Hit
     • Smashed
     • Collided
     • Bumbed
     • Conacted
   • They found that the "harsher" the verb, the higher the speed.

2. Weapon focus

   • Weapon focus can influence and distort memory
     • This is due to the witness focusing on the weapon instead of the face of the criminal or the event itself
   • Pickle and a chicken experiment
   • The participants had to wait outside the lab waiting for their "experiment"
     • There were two conditions
       • 1. They heard an arguement and someone walked out of the room with a pen and greasy hands
       • 2. They heard an arguement and someone walked out of the room with a knife and bloody hands

3. The cognitive interview

   • Recall everything
   • Change order
   • Change perspective: revisit the even in their mind
   • Context reinstatment

4. Anxiety

   • It can increase alertness and awareness to cues
   • Prevents paying attention to cues and detail of the event

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