"Eyewitness testimony differs from many other aspects of memory in that accuracy is of much greater importance." Consider what psychological research has told us about the accuracy of eyewitness testimony.

Authors Avatar

“Eyewitness testimony differs from many other aspects of memory in that accuracy is of much greater importance.” Consider what psychological research has told us about the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. (18 marks)

Candidate A’s answer: (AO1 normal text AO2 italic text)

Loftus has conducted a lot of research into eyewitness testimony (EWT). In one study (Loftus and Palmer) participants were shown clips of an automobile accident and asked to say how fast the car was travelling. Their estimate of the speed was affected by the words that had been used to describe the accident. So if the word 'smashed into' was used, the participants suggested a much faster speed than if the words 'hit each other' were used. This suggests that eyewitness reports might be affected by the way the eyewitnesses are questioned and thus influence the accuracy of participants’ recall of vital information for the legal system. This finding therefore shows the unreliability of EWT.

In another study by Loftus the participants were asked a question about a headlight. If the question was changed so that participants were asked about 'the' broken headlight, more of them remembered the headlight than when it was just 'a' broken headlight (in fact there was no headlight). This shows the effect of language on EWT again.

In a similar study, Loftus arranged for participants to watch a film of a car travelling through the countryside. They were all asked how fast a white sports car was travelling but some of them were asked the question with '...as it passed the barn' (but there was no barn). Later, when participants were asked if they saw a barn in the film those who had been prompted to think there might have been a barn were more likely to report that they saw it.

In a classic study of EWT, Allport (1974) had his participants take a brief look at a drawing of several people on a subway train, including a seated black man and a white man standing with a razor in his hand. Findings: After a brief look at a drawing such as this one, half of the participants reported having seen the razor in the black man's hand and that the black man had been threatening the white man. In conclusion it would appear that those participants who reported having seen the razor in the black man's hand and that the black man had been threatening the white man had distorted the information in keeping with stereotypical beliefs about black and white men, thus supporting claims about the reconstructive nature of memory.

Join now!

Bartlett has also carried out studies into the reconstructive nature of memory. He had 20 participants take part in a natural experiment in which they were asked to learn a piece of text that was designed to produce a conflict between its contents and the reader's own schemas of the world e.g. if people read a story from a different culture, then it would contain words and concepts that were foreign. The readers’s prior knowledge might then affect the way it was recalled e.g. making the text more acceptable from the viewpoint of their own culture. In one study, English ...

This is a preview of the whole essay