KI: EWT is reliable

KI: EWT is reliable

1. Yuille and Cutshall 1986

   • Followed up 13/21 witnesses to a shoot out between an armed robber and a gun shop owner
   • 5 months later the witnesses were re-interviewed, these interviews contained 2 misleading questions
   • The witnesses were unfazed buy the misleading questions and produced highly detailed accounts of the event.
   • This suggests that real life EWT isn't affected to the extremes lab research suggests and therefore could be viewed as reliable

2. Riniolo et al 2003

   • Studied eye witness accounts of 20 survivors of the Titanic
   • Eye witnesses generally recalled events accuratley.
   • 15/20 witnesses clearly recalled that the Titanic actually broke apart and sank in bits, rather than the stereotypical scene of the ship sinking in tact in two halves
   • Suggests real life EWT isn't affected to the extremes that lab research suggests- viewed as reliable

3. Why real life EWT may be viewed as reliable

   • Studies lack mundane realism and ecological validity which makes it difficult to generalise findings from videos used in EWT research. No emotionality or involvement- unlike in Yuille and Cutshall's research
   • Demand Characteristic may occur in lab exp.- try to guess aim. Participants have to pay attention whereas in real life, things happen v fast and can be confusing. Also, questioning used in research is unlike that in police interviews
   • Samples used often unrepresentative- findings difficult to generalise. Participants usually uni students thus don't represent all ages
   • Not all details of an event are distorted by leading questions. Usually only peripheral and insignificant details. Yuille and Cutshall demonstrated leading questions didn't faze participants
   • Validity of lab experiments can be questioned
     • Smith and Elsworth found that if the interviewer was perceived by the witness to have no knowledge on the incident or they were untrustworthy, there was no effect on leading questions
       • In psych research- researcher is expected to know what's in the video, and participants may therefore succumb to leading questions more.
       • Real life research has found that EWT isn't affected to the extremes lab research suggests- Yuille and Cutshall & Riniolo et al.
   • Flashbulb Memories
     • detailed and particularly vivid recollections of an extraordinary/dramatic event. eg. Twin Towers
     • Brown and Kulik 1982
       • suggested that the emotion involved in these events activates a different way of encoding that leaves a more permanent and resilient memory trace
       • Links to reliability of EWT because incidents may become flashbulb memories. These are thought to be more reliable as they are more resilient
         • EWT therefore more reliable if memory of incident is stored as a flashbulb memory- better recall of event
   • Cognitive Technique
     • A technique used by police during questioning of witnesses to help them recall an incident in as much detail as possible with the most accuracy
     • Links with cue dependent forgetting
     • The use of Cognitive Interview links with EWT because the cues present at encoding are needed at retrival otherwise info won't be as reliable as it could be
       • The cognitive interview is used when taking eye witness statements
       • Lab research doesn't always use this- thus may be portraying EWT as more unreliable than it is