EWT

BATs
AO1 - outline what is meant by the terms
EWT and Leading questions
A01/2 -Discuss the factors that affect the
accuracy of EWT (leading questions, anxiety, age of witness)
Evaluate the impact of misleading information on EWT

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Reconstructive memory
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Schema driven errors
Effect of leading questions
Other factors
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Weapon focus
Effects of anxiety/arousal
Age of witness

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Bartlett (1932)
Memory is not a direct record of what was witnessed
What is encoded and how it is retrieved depends on:
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Information already stored in memory
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How this info is understood, structured and organised

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Schemas
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Knowledge structures that relate to commonly encountered objects, situations or people
Enable us to predict events, make sense of unfamiliar circumstances, organise our own behaviour
Act as filters to perception & recall

Computer Information Processing
Can you wreck a nice beach?

Can you wreck a nice beach?
Yes. I can recognise speech.

‘Pickaxe’
‘Turf cutter’
Bartlett (1932) See also Carmichael et al (32) p 32 Exploring Psychology

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Witnesses to crimes filter information during acquisition & recall
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Their schematic understanding may influence how info is both stored & retrieved
Distortions may occur without the witness realising

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Past experiences
Assumptions about what usually happens
Stereotypes & beliefs about crime & criminals

Look at this picture

Factors that affect Eye Witness
Testimony
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Stereotypes - Allport and Postman (1947)
Participants shown a cartoon of a black and a white man on a subway train. Most recalled that the black man had the razor in his hand. The razor was actually in the white man’s hand.
(stereotype – more prone to violence).
Conclusion: When an actual perceptual fact doesn’t match our expectations, we trust our expectation more than the real situation.
We see what we expect to see and this forms the basis for the memory for an event.

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Loftus (1970s onwards)
Effect of leading questions on recall
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Leading questions introduce new information
Leading info may activate wrong schemas in witness’ mind
Consequently, witness may recall events incorrectly

Factors that affect reconstructive memory
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How witnesses are interviewed –
leading questions, facial techniques, tone of voice of interview may unintentionally communicate their expectations
(what they want to hear).

Illustrated the reconstructive nature of memory.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hwEUaOeuFQ

The role of misleading questions?
In her research Loftus showed that memories can be affected by the wording of questions.
A leading question is a question about an event that is phrased in such a way as to prompt a particular answer.
Information is provided in the question (i.e. after the event) which may distort the accuracy of the memory.

Loftus (1974) shows that people tend to believe a suspect is guilty if there is an eyewitness.
So it is very important that psychologists find out why EWT is inaccurate and how to improve accuracy.

Read about this classic research on p 33 of
Exploring Psychology
Draw a graph of the results in tables 2.1 and
2.2.
What conclusion can be drawn from this research?
What does is suggest about the accuracy of
EWT?
Any problems with this piece of research?

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Loftus’ studies using film/video/slides road accidents
‘How fast were cars going when they hit…’ or ‘…when they smashed…’?
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‘Smashed’ led to higher speed estimates
Loftus and Zanni (1975)
‘Did you see a/the broken headlight’?
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‘The’ produced more affirmative (incorrect) responses

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Loftus’ research usually lab based:
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Restricted samples (students)
Artificial stimuli (slides, videos, not real events)
Potential for demand characteristics to influence responses
No legal/moral consequences for inaccurate answers. (Foster et al (1994) – witnesses more accurate in recalling memory of a bank robbery when they were led to believe their testimony would influence a real trial.)

What other factors affect Eye
Witness Testimony?
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If you were a witness to a crime:
How would you feel?

What other factors affect Eye
Witness Testimony?
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Can we rely on the testimony of children and older people?

How does anxiety and age of witness affect EWT? Over to you…..
You will be given one of the above to research using the text book.
Produce a bullet point summary to report your findings back to the other group.

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When a weapon is used to threaten a victim, their attention is likely to focus on it
Consequently, their recall of other information is likely to be poor

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Memory is most effective at moderate arousal levels
If the witness was in a state of extremely low or high arousal then recall may be poor arousal
Graph to show the Yerkes-
Dodson Law that says that performance is best in moderately arousing conditions

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Assessed level of arousal and accuracy of testimonies from 13 witnesses to real robberies or murders.
Less accurate recall when levels of arousal were high than low, BUT very high arousal led to better recall than moderate.
Does not match Yerkes-Dodson Law
Could be explained by how close (proximity) witnesses were to the crime
Closest are more stressed, but have better view

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Repression – motivated forgetting
Traumatic memories become inaccessible
(in unconscious) to protect us from being upset by them.
Conflicting evidence for this theory
See p 31 Exploring Psychology

Children
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Brennan and Brennan (88)
6-15 year olds failed to understand 1/3 of questions asked by lawyers.
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More correct answers when asked more simple questions (Carter et al 96)
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‘Tags’ – ‘didn’t she’ added at end – led to more yes answers than when tag not there (Krackow and Lynn 03)

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Children –
Children often change answers if question
repeated. (Samuel and Bryant, 84.
Blades and Krahenbuhl, 06)
Memon et al (06) – positive, but not negative stereotypes affect children’s judgements about people.
Defendents with more positive stereotype less likely to considered guilty.

Thinking Critically about psychology p 36
Ian Huntley (2003)
Soham murders
How does Memon et al’s research findings help to explain why Ian Huntley was able to get away with the crime for so long?
When he was interviewed on TV at the time of the murder he wasn’t considered a suspect

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Older Adults as Witnesses
Assumption by police and society that
Memory fails with age, so less reliable Eye witnesses.
Backed up by:
(Holliday, ‘05), Brimacombe et al (‘97),
Wright and Holliday (’07)
Age of witness made no difference in
cognitive interviews (next lesson!!)

A case of wrongful Conviction?
Try it yourself……
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Carry out the task on the worksheet
You can do this in pairs if you wish
It can be finished at home
I would like to use the best ones for the
Post 16 Open Evening next week and
Y10/11 Psychology Taster day

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Answer the following questions
What type of experiments were those carried out by Loftus in the 70’s?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of her research?
Find examples of ethical issues raised during EWT research. How could they be addressed?

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Summarise the work you have covered today as bullet points of the main points or a mind map.
Include –
Definition of leading questions, EWT, weapon focus,
Yerkes-Dodson Law
- The research of Loftus – (1974), Loftus and Zanni and Yuille and Cutshall (pros and cons, ethics e.t.c)
- the affect of leading questions, age and anxiety on EWT
Finish the Case of Wrongful Conviction activity
What does this task highlight about the impact of misleading info, age and anxiety on EWT?

BATs
AO1 Describe the cognitive interview technique and understand its rationale
A01/2 Describe and evaluate evidence that underpins our understanding of EW
AO2 - Discuss the impact of misleading information on EWT

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In the light of the work of Loftus on the importance of Leading Questions in the
70’s Police needed to change questioning techniques.

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Also EWT typically takes place in a different context to acquisition (scene of the crime)
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Lack of retrieval cues (state and context) can inhibit recall
Reconstruction of the events (either imagination or simulation) can lead to enhanced recall
This is one of the elements of the
Cognitive Interview

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Geiselman et al (1985) identified 4 key principles for the cognitive interview.
In pairs use p 37 of Exploring Psychology and p14 of your revision guide to find out what those
4 key principles are, plus the principles of the
Enhanced CI (Fisher et a, ’87)
Each study 4 and report back to your partner.
Fill in the worksheet, use as a revision tool.

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Try it for yourself….
Work in fours – 2 of you will be the interviewers and the other 2 the witnesses
Use the incident from the video
Either ask direct ’interrogative’ questions
(see sheet)
Or Use a Cognitive interview technique
(see sheet)
Compare the accuracy of the recall.

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Outline the pros and cons of the CI, using research studies –
Fisher et al (87)
Geiselman (86) – see Revision guide
Geiselman and Fisher (97)

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Pros – lots of studies (in real and lab situations) have shown that CI produce more forensically rich information .
Cons – Can be time consuming – some elements missed out (Thames Valley
Police)
- Insufficient training (Memon et al 94)

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Finish for homewor k
P38 Thinking Creatively about Psychology
Create a poster, leaflet, or mind map of what you have learnt about what factors can affect
Eye Witness Testimony and recommendations for how best to make EWT testimonies as accurate as possible.
I would like to use the best ones for the Y10/11
Psychology taster lesson
Think about your audience. Select the most important points. Have a balanced view.

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Revise everything you have done on memory and EWT for a mock after half term (probably the 3rd Nov)
Practice questions – p41 in text book – answer questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Hand in on 10 th Nov please

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Central executive
Maintenance rehearsal
Episodic buffer
Articulatory suppression
Weapon focus