Factors that affect eye witness Testimonies

Factors that affect eye witness Testimonies

1. Misleading Information

   • Loftus and Palmer investigated how Eye witness testimonies (EWT) can be distorted they used leading questions where a certain answer can be subtly implied by the question
     • Key study of misleading information - Loftus and Palmer
       • Experiment 1
         • Method - Paricipants were shown a film of a multiple car crash. they were then asked a series of questions includig"about how fast were the cars going when they hit each other the word hit was replaced with smashed, collided, bumped or contacted
           • Results - The word smashed caused the participants to estimate the highest speed , 41 mph, the word contacted gave the lowest estimate , 12 mph.
             • Evaluation
       • Experiment 2
         • Method - Participants were split into group. One group was given the word smashed another hit and the third group was not given any indication of the vehicles speed. A week later the participants were asked did you see any broken glass
           • Results - Although there was no broken glass the participants were more likely to say they had seen broken glass in the "smashed" condition than any other
             • This was an artificial experiment is they were watching a video which is not as emotionally arousing as real life therefore this may have affected recall of the event, Participants who thought they had witnessed a real robbery were able to give a more accurate description. Some participants may have acted as they though they were supposed to act like and this would of reduced the validity of the experiment.
     • Additional study of misleading information - Loftus and Zanni
       • Method - showed participants a film of a car accident then asked them either " did you see THE broken headlight?" or "did you see A broken headlight?"
         • Results - Even though there was no broken headlight 7% of those asked about "a" broken headlight stated they saw and 17% of "the" broken headlight claimed they saw one
           • Conclusion - the simple use a word is enough to affect the accuracy of peoples memories of an event

2. Age

   • Studies have shown that the age of an eyewitness can have an effect on the accuracy of eyewitness testimonies
     • Key study of the effect of age on EWT- Valentine and Coxton
       • Method - Three groups of participants, children , young adults and elderly people were made to watch a video of a kidnapping, they were then asked a series of leading and non-leading questions about what they had seen.
         • Results - Both the elderly people and the children gave more wrong answers to non-leading questions. Children were mislead more by leading questions than adults or the elderly.
           • Conclusion - Age has an effect on the accuracy of eyewitness testimonies
             • Evaluation - The experiment was artificial so wasn't emotionally arousing as the same situation would have in real life, the lacks external validity. The study could be considered as how well people remember things of TV which is not the same as real life.

3. Anxiety

   • Psychologists tend to believe that small increases in anxiety and arousal may increase the accuracy of memory, but high levels have a negative effect on accuracy. In violent crimes where anxiety is high the witness may focus on central details such as the weapon and neglect peripheral details
     • Key study of anxiety in EWT - Loftus
       • Method- In a study of independant groups design participants heard a discussion in a nearby room. In one condition a man came out of the room with a pen and grease on his hands. In the second condition a man came out with a knife covered in blood. The participants were asked to identify the man from 50 photographs
         • Results - 49% accuracy in condition 1 and only 33% accuracy in condition 2 showing that when anxious and aroused witnesses focus on a weapon
           • Evaluation - It had high ecological validity this means that there were also ethical considerations as they could of been distressed
     • Additional studies of anxiety in EWT
       • Yuille and CUtshall
         • Carried out interviews with 13 people who had witnessed a shooting and found that the people nearest the incident were able to give the most detail and those who were most distressed by the event were able to give accurate description 5 months later