EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY EVALUATION

EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY EVALUATION

1. ANXIETY

   • MAY TEST SURPRISE NOT ANXIETY
     • People may focus on the weapon because they are surprised to see it rather than because they're scared
     • PICKEL (1998) used scissors, handgun, wallet + raw chicken in a hairdressing salon
       • EWT accuracy was poorer for high unusualness (chicken + handgun)
   • FIELD STUDIES LACK CONTROL OF VARIABLES
     • Many things happen to participants in the time between the events and when the researchers next interview them
     • EXAMPLES: eyewitnesses discuss the event with other witnesses; read/view accounts in the media; police interview my influence their memory
     • Extraneous variables could therefore be responsible for the inaccuracy of recall over anxiety
   • ETHICAL ISSUES
     • Creating anxiety in ppts can be unethical as it may subject people to psychological harm
     • Real life studies can therefore be beneficial as the ppts have already been subjected to the distress
   • INVERTED-U IS TOO SIMPLISTIC
     • Anxiety has many elements (cognitive, behavioural, emotional, physical) which makes it difficult to define + measure
     • Explanation assumes one of these is linked to poor performance, but fails to account for other factors, e.g. the effect of the emotional experience of witnessing a crime
   • DEMAND CHARACTERISTICS
     • Most ppts in a lab study are aware they're watching a staged crime for a reason to do with a study
     • Reduces validity as they give answers they think the researcher will want to hear

2. MISLEADING INFORMATION

   • REAL LIFE APPLICATION
     • Led to important practical uses for the police since inaccurate EWTs can be very serious
     • LOFTUS (1975) claimed that leading questions can have such a distorting effect that police have to be especially careful with their phrasing
   • ARTIFICIAL MATERIALS
     • Watching film clips is very different to watching an event in real-life
     • After real events, people had very accurate recall, even months later
   • INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
     • ANASTASI + RHODES (2006): found that older people were less accurate than younger people
     • OWN-AGE BIAS, people were better identifying people of their own age
   • DEMAND CHARACTERISTICS
     • Ppts want to be helpful + attentive, so may guess answers in order to be 'right'
     • This challenges the validity as people may give inaccurate answers because they want to be helpful
   • LACK OF EXTERNAL VALIDITY
     • FOSTER ET AL (1994) what you remember in real life can have important consequences compared to research studies
     • Real eyewitnesses try extra hard to search their memories to get successful convictions

3. COGNITIVE INTERVIEW

   • SOME ELEMENTS ARE USEFUL
     • MILNE + BULL (2002) found that each individual element of the CI was equally valuable
       • Also found that REPORT EVERYTHING + CONTEXT REINSTATEMENT = better recall together than any others individually
         • Therefore these 2 elements at least should be used to improve police interviewing
   • EFFECTIVE
     • KOHNKEN ET AL (1999) conducted a meta analysis of 50 studies
       • Enhanced CI provided more correct information than the standard police interview
     • Practical benefits to the police using the enhanced version of the CI
   • TIME-CONSUMING
     • Takes more time than the standard police interview
     • Also requires special training and many forces have not been able to provide more than a few hours
     • "Proper" version of the CI is therefore most likely not used
   • UNRELIABLE
     • Different variations are used so is difficult to draw conclusions in general about the CI
   • PRODUCES AN INCREASE OF INACCURATE INFORMATION
     • Increase in the recall of incorrect information alongside the increase of correct information
     • KOHNKEN ET AL (1999): found an 81% increase in correct information but also a 61% increase in incorrect information when CI was compared to the standard interview
     • Police should therefore treat all collected information with caution