EYE WITNESS TESTIMONY
WHAT IS EYE WITNESS TESTIMONY?
Question – write your answer on your mini-whiteboards – What is an
Eyewitness Testimony?
AQA Definition: The evidence given in court or in a police
investigation by someone who who has witnessed a crime or and
accident.
1. HOW ACCURATE IS A PERSONS EWT?
 30 Years’ of research suggests that EWT is highly unreliable.
 Wells (1998) studied 40 people who were convicted, then released by
conclusive DNA evidence. More than 90% were wrongly convicted by
inaccurate eyewitness testimony.
 Sadly, it was too late for 5 of these people…
WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS
 Ronald Cotton spent 11 years in prison for two counts of rape which he didn’t
commit. He was picked out of a line up two victims who misidentified him.
 Bobby Poole later confessed to two counts of rape.
CAN YOU SPOT THE MURDERER?
YOU HAVE NOW WITNESSED A MURDER…
 Task – On your mini-whiteboards write down EVERYTHING you can remember
about the murderer?
 What did he/she look like?
 What were they wearing?
 Etc…
CAN YOU CORRECTLY IDENTIFY THE CRIMINAL…
 Now you have a go at being an eye witnesses. Can you pick out the criminal
from an identity parade?
 http://www.open2.net/eyewitness/line_up_graham_pike.html
WHAT FACTORS AFFECT THE ACCURACY OF EWT?
Question: In group, consider why it was so difficult for you (the eye-witness) to
identify the criminal…then write (on your mini-whiteboards) what factors can
affect the accuracy of EWT…
THE FACTORS…
For you exam, you will need to understand how three different
factors affect the reliability of EWT, including:
 Anxiety
 Age of Witness
 Misleading information
WHAT PART OF THE PICTURE DO YOUR EYES
FOCUS ON?
 You will now see a series of pictures. Try to remember what part
of the picture your eyes focus on, when you see each of the
pictures…
WHAT PART OF THE PICTURE DO YOUR EYES
FOCUS ON?
THE WEAPON FOCUS EFFECT
 Where the witness focuses all their attention on the weapon
being used, they have difficulties remembering the other details
of the event.
LOFTUS (1979)
ACTIVITY
 Read Loftus (1979 and answer the following questions:
 What was the aim of her experiment?
 What was the independent variable in the experiment?
 What was the dependent variable ?
 Write a directional hypothesis for the experiment (taking into account
the weapon focus effect)
ANSWERS
 Aim: To see if anxiety effects EWT
 IV: The two situations observed (weapon vs. no weapon)
 DV: The % of participants that could accurately identify the man walking out
of the laboratory.
 Directional Hypothesis: Participants exposed to the situation involving a
weapon will make less accurate identifications of the man compared to
participants exposed to the situation involving no weapon.
EVALUATING LOFTUS (1979)
‘THE WEAPON EFFECT’
EVALUATING RESEARCH
 Methodological Issues
 Any problems with the method (procedure) of the study e.g.
the tasks they had to do or where the study was carried out.
 Sample issues
 Are there any problems with the sample.
 Ethical issues
 Did the psychologist adhere to the code of ethics?
EVALUATING RESEARCH
 Methodological Issues
 Her study was artificial, why?
 Thus, we say it lacked ecological validity.
 Sample issues
 Participants were all from America.
 Thus, we say her sample lacked population validity.
 Ethnocentric sample.
 Ethical issues
 May have caused distress to participants when they saw the
blooded knife-protection from harm.
YOUR TURN TO EVALUATE IN GROUPS…
1) Summaries your study – aim, method, result and conclusion (in
less than 100 words).
2) Evaluate your study using the headings…
 Methodological issues
 Sample issues
 Ethical issues
 Use your notes and text books to help you
 Table 1 - Bower’s study
 Table 2 - Milgram's study
 Table 3 - Peterson & Peterson’s study
 Table 4 - Miller’s study
 Table 5 -Bahrick’s study