Flashcards
Factors Affecting Eyewitness Testimony
Cards in this deck (12)
- 1Leading questions ~Loftus and Palmer (1974)~Aimed to see if verbs in leading questions affected estimates of speed.
45 participants watched 7 clips of a car crash and were each asked 'How fast were the cars going when they (smashed, hit, bumped, collided with, contacted with) each other?'
'Smashed' gave an average speed estimate of 40.8mph.
'Contacted with' gave an average speed estimate of 31.8mph.
They found that leading questions can change memory or perception of an event. - 2Loftus and Palmer (1974) ~Positive evaluation~-Real-life application, as stopping police using leading questions can reduce false imprisonment.
-Independent design was used so participants did not suffer boredom and practice effects.
-High reliability due to extraneous variables being controlled, as it was a lab experiment. - 3Loftus and Palmer (1974) ~Negative evaluation~-Low ecological validity due to lack of other factors such as stress that would affect answers in real-life.
-Participants may have suffered from demand characteristics due to finding out the aim of the study. - 4Anxiety ~Loftus et al (1979)~Aimed to see if weapon focus would affect recall.
In condition 1 a man emerged from a nearby argument holding a pen and in condition 2 the man emerged holding a knife.
Participants in condition 1 were 49% accurate with recalling who the man was.
Participants in condition 2 were 33% accurate in recalling who the man was.
They found that focusing on the weapon will distract from information being remembered about the suspect. - 5Loftus et al (1979) ~Positive evaluation~-Independent design was used so participants did not suffer practice or boredom effects.
-High reliability as it was a lab experiment so all extraneous variables were controlled. - 6Loftus et al (1979) ~Negative evaluation~-Participants may have suffered demand characteristics due to finding out the aim of the study.
- 7Anxiety ~Yuille and Cutshall (1986)~Aimed to see if stress would affect recall of events of a real-life shooting.
21 individuals witnessed a shooting in Canada, 13 of which were re-interviewed after their original interview.
Participants were asked to rate their stress on a likert scale before interviews.
Found that more stressed participants had more accurate recall of events.
Concluded that stress/anxiety does not impair recall of events. - 8Yuille and Cutshall (1986) ~Positive evaluation~-High ecological validity due to it being a real-life situation and a field experiment.
- 9Yuille and Cutshall (1986) ~Negative evaluation~-Lacks internal validity as it was a field experiment and extraneous variables were not controlled.
-Unethical as participants may have found it distressing to recall details of the event.
-Low generalisability as only 13 people were used in the sample. - 10Post-event discussion ~Gabbert et al (2003)~Aimed to see if post-event discussion would lead to inaccurate recall of events.
Each participant watched a video of the same crime but each from a different perspective.
A group of participants discussed what they saw in the video and a control group were not able to discuss what they saw.
71% of participants recalled aspects they did not see in the video.
0% of people in the control group recalled events they did not see. - 11Gabbert et al (2003) ~Positive evaluation~-High reliability as it was a lab experiment so all extraneous variables could be controlled.
Real-life application as stopping post-even discussion between witnesses could lead to more accurate testimonies. - 12Gabbert et al (2003) ~Negative evaluation~-Participants may have suffered demand characteristics due to finding out the aim of the study.
-Low ecological validity due to lack of other factors that would affect recall such as stress and negative emotions.
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- AS level Psychology (Memory) Flashcards on Factors Affecting Eyewitness Testimony, created by Amy Woodward on 02/06/2018.
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- Amy Woodward
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