Effects of misleading information on EWT
AO1 BRIEF: 2 marks
AO3: 1-3 marks
Eyewitness testimony is people’s ability to remember events in detail
after observing it. Accuracy of EWT is affected by factors like An important limitation of Loftus and Palmer’s study is that
ai
misleading information, including leading questions and post-event participants only watched video clips of car accidents, which is a
discussion. Loftus and Palmer looked into the effects of leading completely different experience to witnessing a real accident. For
questions, where participants watched video clips of car accidents, and example, the clips lack the stress of a real accident which may
were given questions to answer including “about how fast were the affect recall. This is because there is some evidence to show that
cars going when they hit each other?” This is a leading question as the emotions have an influence on memory. Therefore, studies that
verb ‘hit’ suggests the speed at which the car was going. Five groups use artificial tasks may give us little information on how leading
of participants were given this question, each containing a different questions actually affect EWT in real accidents or crimes, and
verb; hit, contacted, bumped, collided or smashed. The findings some researchers may be too harsh about the accuracy of EWT.
resulted in the verb ‘contacted’ having a mean estimated speed of
31.8 mph, whereas for ‘smashed’ it was 40.5 mph. This shows that the
leading question biased the eyewitness recall of an event.
AO1 EXPLAIN: 4 marks AO3: 4-6 marks
The response bias explanation suggests that the wording of a However, a great strength of all research into misleading
question does not have any real effect on the participant’s memories, information is that it has important practical uses in the real world,
and simply influences how people decide to answer. For example, a where the consequences of inaccurate EWT can be very serious.
leading question that uses the word ‘smashed’ encourages Loftus believes that leading questions can distort memory, which
participants to estimate a higher speed compared to the verb means that police officers need to be wary about the way in which
‘contacted’. A second experiment was also carried out that supported they word their questions when interviewing eyewitnesses.
the substitution explanation. This is where the wording of a leading Psychologists believe that they can make an important difference to
question alters the participant’s memory of the clip, demonstrated by the lives of many through improving the legal system and appearing
participants who originally head the word ‘smashed’ being more in court trials as expert witnesses. These useful real life applications
likely to report seeing broken glass than those who heard ‘hit’. therefore have a positive effect on society.
AO1 DISCUSS – 6 marks AO3: 7-8 marks
Post-event discussion occurs when co-witnesses to a crime discuss it, Despite these uses, some researchers argue that many answers
meaning that their testimonies may become contaminated as given by participants in lab studies of EWT are due to demand
information from other witnesses becomes mixed up with their own characteristics. Usually, participants want to be on the same side as
memories. Therefore, this may influence each witness’s recall the researcher, appearing helpful and attentive. Due to this, if they
accuracy. A study into this was carried out where pairs of participants do not know the answer to a question they are asked then they
watched a film of the same crime from a different perspective, seeing guess. This is a big problem for EWT studies, as participants know
different elements of the event. They then discussed the films before that they are taking part in an interview of a case, and therefore
completing an individual recall test. Researchers found that 71% of may give false information in order to be seen as helpful. As a
participants mistakenly recalled aspects of the event picked up in the result, there may be subsequent effects.
discussion that they had not seen in the clip, whereas for the control
group (who didn’t discuss) this was 0%.
AO3: 9-10 marks
NOTES
Another limitation is that individual differences between people
lead to differences in eyewitness reports. For example, a study
found that older people tend to be less accurate at recall than
younger people. It was found that people between the age of 18
and 45 were more accurate than people between the age of 55 and
78. However, all age groups were found to be more accurate when
identifying people of a similar age to themselves. Younger people
are often used in research studies which may mean that some age
groups appear less accurate than others. This is not at all true.
Word count: AO1 = 351, AO3 = 395, TOTAL = 746
AO1 BRIEF: 2 marks
AO3: 1-3 marks
Eyewitness testimony is people’s ability to remember events in detail
after observing it. Accuracy of EWT is affected by factors like An important limitation of Loftus and Palmer’s study is that
ai
misleading information, including leading questions and post-event participants only watched video clips of car accidents, which is a
discussion. Loftus and Palmer looked into the effects of leading completely different experience to witnessing a real accident. For
questions, where participants watched video clips of car accidents, and example, the clips lack the stress of a real accident which may
were given questions to answer including “about how fast were the affect recall. This is because there is some evidence to show that
cars going when they hit each other?” This is a leading question as the emotions have an influence on memory. Therefore, studies that
verb ‘hit’ suggests the speed at which the car was going. Five groups use artificial tasks may give us little information on how leading
of participants were given this question, each containing a different questions actually affect EWT in real accidents or crimes, and
verb; hit, contacted, bumped, collided or smashed. The findings some researchers may be too harsh about the accuracy of EWT.
resulted in the verb ‘contacted’ having a mean estimated speed of
31.8 mph, whereas for ‘smashed’ it was 40.5 mph. This shows that the
leading question biased the eyewitness recall of an event.
AO1 EXPLAIN: 4 marks AO3: 4-6 marks
The response bias explanation suggests that the wording of a However, a great strength of all research into misleading
question does not have any real effect on the participant’s memories, information is that it has important practical uses in the real world,
and simply influences how people decide to answer. For example, a where the consequences of inaccurate EWT can be very serious.
leading question that uses the word ‘smashed’ encourages Loftus believes that leading questions can distort memory, which
participants to estimate a higher speed compared to the verb means that police officers need to be wary about the way in which
‘contacted’. A second experiment was also carried out that supported they word their questions when interviewing eyewitnesses.
the substitution explanation. This is where the wording of a leading Psychologists believe that they can make an important difference to
question alters the participant’s memory of the clip, demonstrated by the lives of many through improving the legal system and appearing
participants who originally head the word ‘smashed’ being more in court trials as expert witnesses. These useful real life applications
likely to report seeing broken glass than those who heard ‘hit’. therefore have a positive effect on society.
AO1 DISCUSS – 6 marks AO3: 7-8 marks
Post-event discussion occurs when co-witnesses to a crime discuss it, Despite these uses, some researchers argue that many answers
meaning that their testimonies may become contaminated as given by participants in lab studies of EWT are due to demand
information from other witnesses becomes mixed up with their own characteristics. Usually, participants want to be on the same side as
memories. Therefore, this may influence each witness’s recall the researcher, appearing helpful and attentive. Due to this, if they
accuracy. A study into this was carried out where pairs of participants do not know the answer to a question they are asked then they
watched a film of the same crime from a different perspective, seeing guess. This is a big problem for EWT studies, as participants know
different elements of the event. They then discussed the films before that they are taking part in an interview of a case, and therefore
completing an individual recall test. Researchers found that 71% of may give false information in order to be seen as helpful. As a
participants mistakenly recalled aspects of the event picked up in the result, there may be subsequent effects.
discussion that they had not seen in the clip, whereas for the control
group (who didn’t discuss) this was 0%.
AO3: 9-10 marks
NOTES
Another limitation is that individual differences between people
lead to differences in eyewitness reports. For example, a study
found that older people tend to be less accurate at recall than
younger people. It was found that people between the age of 18
and 45 were more accurate than people between the age of 55 and
78. However, all age groups were found to be more accurate when
identifying people of a similar age to themselves. Younger people
are often used in research studies which may mean that some age
groups appear less accurate than others. This is not at all true.
Word count: AO1 = 351, AO3 = 395, TOTAL = 746
