Factors affecting eyewitness testimony: misleading information

Factors affecting eyewitness testimony: misleading information

1. leading questions and post event discussion

   • leading questions
     • procedure
       • Loftus and Palmer
         • clips of a car accident
           • asked how fast the car was going
             • changed the speed: contacted bumped collided and smashed
     • findings
       • mean speed was higher for smashed than contacted
         • smashed was 41mph
         • contacted was 30mph
     • why do leading questions affect EWT
       • response bias explanation
         • wording of the question does not effect participants memories
           • but influences how they decide the answer
       • substitution explanation
         • the wording of a leading question changes the memory
           • participants who were given the word smashed were more likely to report broken glass
   • post event discussion
     • when co-witnesses discuss their EWT become contaminated
       • from misinformation from other witnesses with their own memories
         • procedure
           • Gabbert
             • pairs saw the same crime but form different angles
               • then they discussed before testing their recall
         • findings
           • 71% of participants mistakenly recalled aspects of the event that they didn't see but had been told
             • in the control group (no discussion) there was 0%
               • go along with it to gain social approval or because they thought they were wrong
                 • called memory conformity

2. evaluation

   • useful real life applications
     • affect how police now interview people after crimes
       • when EWT are very important
   • the tasks are artificial
     • watched film clips
       • different experience to seeing a real one
         • trauma may make people forget
           • artificial tasks - EWT may be more reliable then we think
   • individual differences
     • older people are less accurate than younger in EWT
       • Anastasi and Rhodes
         • people between 18-25 and 35-45 were more accurate then 55-78
           • were more accurate when it was people their own age
             • own age bias

3. evaluation +

   • demand characteristics
     • Zaragosa and McCloskey
       • answers given in a lab are a result of demand characteristics
         • don't want to let the researcher down - helpful and attentive
   • consequences of EWT
     • Foster
       • EWT can have huge consequences in the real world - not in a lab