Term
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Definition
| Memory can be influenced by the wording of questions. For an incident on a video tape, people are more likely to say they saw something when the question used a definite article (the) rather than an indefinite article (a). |
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Term
| misleading postevent information |
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Definition
| Misleading information is presented to people after an event. Memory is changed to accommodate the misleading information. |
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Definition
| The theory that memory performance overall declines at high levels of arousal; this theory is not well supported. |
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Term
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Definition
| At high levels of emotion, people focus attention on a narrower range of details. |
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Definition
| Attention is drawn to a weapon; memory from this is very robust. Peripheral information is more susceptible to misleading information. |
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Term
| relative judgment principle |
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Definition
| In a line up they use fillers plus a suspect. This is a forced choice recognition task. |
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Term
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Definition
Identifying a perpetrator from among a set of alternatives
Two bad things:
1) Misidentifying an innocent person
2) failing to identify the criminal |
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Term
| Describe how wording effects can influence eyewitness testimony. |
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Definition
| Loftus and Palmer: Eyewitnesses reconstruct their memories when questioned about the event. A week later when they were asked: was their any broken glass? Group B( who was smashed into group A’s car) reported more glass than group A (who’s car was hit) |
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Term
| What are the consequences of misleading post-event information on eyewitness memory? |
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Definition
An event is witnessed on a tape, either a narrative description is read or a series of questions are asked:
Consistent: did he set down is hammer before stealing the purse
Misleading: did he set down is screw driver before stealing the purse
Neutral: did he set down his tool before stealing the purse.
Relative to the neutral condition, in the correct condition the correct item is picked me often. In the mislead condition the correct item is selected less often and misleading item more often. |
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Term
| Name the FOUR theories that explain why eyewitness memory reports are altered by misleading post-event information. |
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Definition
1) Memory Trace Replacement Theory: misleading information replaces original, which is permanently lost. When people make a second guess, they are at chance to select the correct item
2) memory coexistence theory:
Misleading information obscures the original memory because it is more recent. Memory is better when original context is reinstated. Memory is better if people are warned of misleading information before a test.
3) response bias theory:
The person either does not remember the original or only remember the later information, giving the appearance of forgetting the original. People select the correct choice when misleading alternative is not given
4) Source monitoring failure theory:
Errors reflect a failure to identify the source; people remember information, but misremember where it came from. Information that people are mislead about is often that which they make source errors for. |
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Term
| What do we know about children’s ability to demonstrate weapon focus? |
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Definition
| Pickel, narter, Jameson and Lenhardt: weapon focus effecting child eyewitness. Participants 4 – 5 year old; 7 -8 year olds, and college undergraduates. Method: Ps watched a video in which a target individual dressed as chief or a mail carrier holds either a weapon or a neutral object steals money; following video, asked questions about the target individual. Results: weapon focus effect demonstrated in all age groups. |
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Term
| How can John Dean’s memory for the Watergate cover-up be characterized in terms of details and gist? |
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Definition
| Counsel to President Nixon during Watergate, reported cover up to congress. Dubbed “the human tape recorder”. Real tape recordings surfaced after his testimony had been given. His memory was inaccurate for details of what went on. His memory was accurate for the gist of what had occred. |
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Term
| On which five retrieval processes does the cognitive interview act? |
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Definition
1) use principles of encoding-specificity and mood-congruent learning
Facilitates accutate retreaval
2) encourage reporting whatever information is available
Avoids problems of response bias
3) start recalling at different points
Avoids set retrieval plans
4) alternate perspectives
Encourages different retrieval routes
5) do not interrupt the witness
Allows more weakly encoded memories to emerge |
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Term
| What is the best way to conduct a line-up according to the principles of memory? |
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Definition
Viewers need to be told that perpetrator may not be present.
“Not there” is not an appropriate answer
Accurate identification reduced 2%
Misidentification reduced 42% |
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Term
| What is one way that a juror’s decision can be affected by how memory operates? |
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Definition
Juries are biased by information order. There is a strong recency bias. Mock juries come to different conclusions when same information is presented in different orders. Jurors may sometimes hear things they shouldn’t. this is essentially direct forgetting. People either hear information that was either:
Inappropriately presented
Presented by irrelevant
Presented and relevant
Presented by irrelevant information biased juries decisions much more than inappropriately presented information. |
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