Eye Witness Testimony & Leading Questions (OCR A-Level Psychology): Revision Notes

2.4.1 Eye Witness Testimony & Leading Questions

Memory accuracy

When we retrieve our memories, we reconstruct them, meaning they aren't always accurate.

Reasons eyewitness testimonies lack accuracy.

False memories = Memories of things that didn't happen

Misleading information = incorrect information an eyewitness receives after an event (can be during post-event discussion or be in the form of leading questions).

Factors influencing memory accuracy in eyewitness testimony:

• Schemas
• Leading Questions
• Post-Event discussion
• Anxiety

Schemas

Mental frameworks that we develop from past experience

• When we retrieve memories, we use pre-existing schemas to fill in missing gaps. This can cause us to misremember events in a way that is consistent with our schema, making our memory less accurate and potentially causing misleading information.

Leading Questions

Questions which suggest a particular answer is correct

• Leading questions influence our memory recall, causing us to remember things that didn't happen, making our memory less accurate and potentially causing misleading information.

Post-Event Discussion

When people discuss an event after it happened

• Post-event discussion can influence how people remember things, as other people have their own expectations and interpretations of what happened, making our memory less accurate and potentially causing misleading information.

KEY STUDY:

Gabert:

Investigated the effect of post-event discussion on the accuracy of eye-witness testimony.

Procedure:

Participants saw a video of a girl stealing either in pairs or individually. The individuals in the pair each saw a different perspective where only one had witnessed the girl stealing.

Findings:

60% said the girl was guilty, despite not seeing her commit a crime