Eye Witness Testimony

Misleading Information.

Loftus '75To see if false presumptions cause participants to reconstruct their memory. 150 university students watched a video of a car crash then were questioned. They were questioned in two groups, one of which was asked about a barn. "How fast was the car travelling when it past the barn?"  A week later the students were asked if they say a barn in the video. 13 from the group that was asked about it said yes, whereas only 2 said yes from the other group. It is possible reconstruct memory by implanting memories that didn't actually happen.

Loftus and Zanni '75To see how wording of a question affects memory. 100 students watched a car accident then were asked 22 questions. One group was asked if they saw the broken headlight, the other was asked did you see a broken headlight? 15% said yes from the 'the group while 7% said yes from the 'a' group. From this they concluded wording of a question can influence recall.

Anxiety.

Loftus '79To see if anxiety damages recall. 2 groups of participants were waiting outside labs, one group heard a quiet conversation and witnessed a man holding a pen leave the room. The other group heard an argument and smashing, a men then appeared holding a bloody knife. When asked to identify the man 49% of the conversation group correctly identified him whereas only 33% did in the argument setting. This led to the idea of the weapon focus effect which means if there is a weapon involved, attention is drawn to it, not the suspect wielding it.

Loftus and Burns '82Investigating if participant's recall is affected by anxiety. Participants saw a tape of a bank robbery. One group saw a violent type with a child been shot in the face, the other group saw the same robbery but with a cut scene of the bank layout. Both tapes include a boy who is on screen for a few seconds wearing a football shirt. The participants were then asked to recall the shirt's number on the back. 4% in the violent group recalled the number correctly, while 27.9% did in the non-violent group. Anxiety can affect memory recall.

Yuille and Cutshall '86   EVALUATION POINTContradicts the importance of anxiety in influencing eyewitness memory. Witnesses of a real life incident of a gun shop robbery which resulted in the thief being shot 6 times but the shopkeeper were asked to give statements that were found to be extremely accurate. The witnesses were then interviews after 5 months and found that their recall was still very accurate.

Age

Poole and Lindsay '01To research the variable of age in eye witness testimony. Children took part in a science demo, the parents then at night read them a unrelated story with new information. The researchers then asked the children questions about the demonstration and they found that the children incorporated the information from both conditions into an individual trace of memory. Younger children mixed up the conditions whereas older children were able to identify which information came from what scenario. This suggests that the as the brain develops it becomes less malleable and harder to influence.

Flin '92Questioned children and adults one day after an incident and then five months later. There was no significant differences in accurate recall after a day but there was a significant forgetting in the children after 5 months, this is important due to the long waiting time between events and court proceedings.

Anastasi and Rhodes '06Tested 3 groups of participants - teens/20s 30/40s 50/70s. Each participant was shown photographs of mixed aged people. Later they were shown 48 photos, 24 original and 24 new and they had to point out which ones they'd been shown earlier. The results showed that the participants were more likely to recognise someone of their own age group, this is known as 'own age bias'

Evaluation Plan - needs to relate to studies mentioned.

real world application into justice system. Children should not be relied on to give accurate eyewitness testimonies, proven by Flin. When anxiety occurs in people their focus is not central to the event but the anxiety triggering features, Loftus proved EWT isnt as accurate as believed. EWT does not ask leading questions anymore, Loftus and Zanni proved that the wording of a question can influence recall, cognitive interview is now used to avoid implanting memories.

Lab based experiments lower ecological validity. Anastasi and Rhodes looked at photographs in a lab which isnt the same as witnessing someone in real life. We may not really be bias. Loftus and Burns showed a bank robbery, the violent tape group wouldn't have been as affected as they would've if it was real life as they're just watching a tape and could show demand characteristics to respond how is expected of them. Loftus showed a video, to which participants could show demand characteristics as they will be paying attention to the whole video whereas in real life they wouldn't see every little detail, so they could react differently.

Scenarios are unrealistic and don't reflect real life. Poole and Lindsey look at a science demo whereas in reality children will be called upon recall to disturbing events. Loftus and Burns carried out research through watching videos, not actually witnessing the robbery, therefore it doesn't reflect real life or trigger real emotions. Videos of car crashes are not as emotionally disturbing as some events in EWT therefore recall may be different.

Ethical issues. if the studies are realistic then children can't be used as participants as they would be harmed psychologically. If they studies are ethical then they are too low in ecological validity to be in any use. Low ecological validity such as Loftus and Burn's video tapes has no ethical issues but it is unrealistic. If the study is high in ecological validity it will have ethical issues as they'll be unaware that its an experiment and be in danger of psychological harm If a study like Loftus has high ecological validity to keep participants safe, then there will be ethical issues such as the participants hearing an argument and witnessing a man with a bloody knife with no warning prior to it. This could be distressing and cause psychological damage. However if they were warned beforehand to stop any ethical issues this would vastly reduce ecological validity to the extent of the research not being useful anymore.

Misleading information

Anxiety

Age

Evaluation