1How does Loftus and Palmer's (1974) research show that eye-witnesses are not reliable?
- info 'suggested' after event (broken glass)
- was incorporated into original memory
2What was the result in Loftus and Palmer's 2nd experiment?
17 of 50 participants in the 'smashed' condition claimed they say broken glass.
3What is evidence of the effect of post-event information?
- Loftus & Zanni (1975) found 7% of ppl asked 'did you see a headlight?' reported seeing one
- 17% of ppl asked 'did you see the headlight?' reported seeing one
4What is the conclusion of the Loftus & Zanni (1975) experiment?
Even subtle changes in wording can influence a participant's recollection.
5How does Freud argue that emotive experiences affect memory?
- argues painful/threatening memories forced into unconscious mind
- i.e. repression; an ego defence mechanism
- EWT unreliable as crimes can be emotionally traumatising
6Why are child witnesses unreliable?
- prone to fantasy
- memories can be esp. affected by others' suggestions
7Why do line-ups not always include the target individual?
- suspect could be chosen bc they fit erroneous description
- EWs often told now line-up may/may not include target
8Whose research shows that children are not reliable eye witnesses?
A meta-analysis by Pozzulo and Lindsay (1998).
9What did Pozzulo and Lindsay (1998) find about children under 5?
They were less likely than older children/adults to make correct identifications when the target was present.
10What did Pozzulo and Lindsay (1998) find about children between 5-13 years old?
- did not differ significantly from adults in the target-present condition
- but more likely to make inevitably wrong choice in target-absent condition
11Why are children between 5-13 years more likely to make a choice in the target-absent condition?
- thought to be due to children being more sensitive about doing what they are asked to do
- feel they can't say 'no' and have to give some answer
- i.e. false positive
12What is a disadvantage of schemas?
Information already held in our schemas may distort our memory of an event.
13What did Yarmey (1993) ask students to do?
They asked 240 students to look at videos of 30 unknown males and classify them as 'good guys' or 'bad guys'.
14What is evidence that memory is reconstructive and therefore unreliable?
There was high agreement amongst participants, suggesting there is similarity in information stored in the 'bad guy' and 'good guy' schemas.
15What are the conclusions of Yarmey's experiment?
Preconceived ideas about criminals' facial features can cause them to choose the person who most looks like a criminal over the actual criminal.
16How many people convicted have been exonerated?
The Innocence Project (2017) found that 358 people who were convicted and sentenced to death since 1989 have been exonerated through DNA evidence.
17How many people exonerated were arrested due to misidentification?
71% of people were convicted wrongfully due to eyewitness misidentification.
18What does the Innocence Project's findings show?
DNA evidence can be more effective in identifying the real culprit.
19What is an example of eyewitness misidentification?
In 1984, Jennifer Thompson-Cannino identified Ronald Cotton as her rapist but DNA testing identified the real perpetrator.
20What is an example of countermeasures made against eye-witness testimony?
The Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE), introduced in 1984, offered a code of practice that needs to be adhered to with regard to the conduct of identification attempts.
21What are the implications of inaccurate EWT?
Economic: Institute for Economics and Peace found abt 7.7% of UK's GDP spent per year on retrials/compensation for the wrongly convicted
Social: risk to society as real perpetrators of crime walk free
22Why is evidence that eye-witness research is misleading?
It focuses on details more susceptible to corruption, e.g.:
- hard-to-estimate details (e.g. speed in Loftus & Palmer study)
- details not central to incident (e.g. broken glass)
23What is a flashbulb memory?
Accurate and long lasting memories formed at times of intense emotion. It is a memory of the context rather than the event itself.
24What do Cahill and McGaugh's (1995) findings show about memory?
It suggests emotions surrounding crime can lead to more reliable memories as crimes are emotive experiences.
25How do hormones affect memory?
Cahill & McGaugh (1995) found hormones associated with emotion (e.g. adrenaline) may enhance storage of memories.
26Davies et al. (1989) found 1.______ and 2.______ children were 3.______ in their memories of an event.
1. 6-7
2. 10-11
3. fairly accurate
27Davies et al. (1989): children do not usually...
'make things up' or deliberately lie when giving testimony.
28Davies et al. (1989): children's memory for important details are...
not altered significantly by adult suggestion after an event.
29How do age groups affect EWT?
Anastasi & Rhodes (2006) found that all age groups are most accurate when recognising an offender from their own age group.
30When can children be more reliable? (Anastasi & Rhodes (2006))
If they are observing other children.
31How many rapists are known to their victims?
90%, according to RapeCrisis.
32What is evidence that memory can still be reliable despite being reconstructive?
- EW's ability to identify assailant likely to be v reliable
- even if crimes very traumatic
- in many crimes, EWs know perpetrator & don't need to refer to schemas
33What is evidence that EWT is more reliable in real life?
- Yuille & Cutshall (1986) found witnesses to armed robbery gave v accurate reports of crime 4 months after event
- even despite 2 misleading qs
- misleading info can have less influence on irl EWT
34What is evidence that EWT is becoming increasingly reliable?
- cognitive interviews
- sequential line-ups
35Why are cognitive interviews more reliable?
- focus on allowing pp's to freely describe what they saw
- asks less qs
36What are cognitive interviews?
A method of questioning that aims to increase the amount and accuracy of information recalled.
37What are sequential lineups?
Where eye witnesses see people in a lineup one by one, rather than all at the same time.
38How may weapon focus affect EWT?
- perceived weapons more likely to attract attention, detracting from peripheral events
- Loftus supports this as recall for man was better if he was shown in image holding cheque book rather than gun
39What is evidence that stress negatively affects EWT?
- Clifford and Scott (1978) found ppl who saw film of violent attack remembered fewer items of info abt event than controls who saw less stressful ver.
- As witnessing real crime is probably more stressful than taking part in experiment, memory accuracy may well be even more affected irl
40What is evidence that sequential lineups are more effective?
Eye witnesses made fewer mistaken identifications when suspects were presented in sequential, rather than simultaneous, line-ups (Steblay et al., 2011).
41Why are sequential lineups ineffective?
o They make people less likely to make a choice on a culprit
o When picking a suspect, may be at greater risk of making wrong choice
Gronlund et al. (2014)
42What did Gronlund et al. (2014) find?
Sequential line-ups can lead to more misidentifications.