...Age and EWT 1. Describe the aims, procedures, findings and conclusions of Poole and Lindsay’s (2001) study of the effects of age on EWT – science demonstration Aims- The aims of their experiment were to assess whether children were able to source monitor. Procedures- They used child participants aged 3-8 years of age. They were shown a science demonstration throughout the day; later that day their parents read them a story, which contained aspects of the science demonstration. The next day, the children were questioned about the science demonstration and then were further asked to think about where they got their information from (source monitoring). Findings- It was found that the younger children were unable to source monitor as they could not identify where they learnt the information whereas the older children could. Conclusion- Poole and Lindsay concluded that the younger children are poorer eye witnesses than the older children as they are unable where they learnt the information. This means that they aren’t able to distinguish between original eyewitness memory and post event information. 2. What does this suggest about age and EWT? This suggests that age does affect EWT. 3. Explain why the story told at home could have been an extraneous variable… Interview bias (how the parents read the story) could have influenced the accuracy of the child’s response. The parents could have unintentionally prejudiced the child by how they read the story; techniques...
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...Can The Human Memory Be Trusted? Many factors can influence eye witness testimony (EWT), EWT is a term used in the legal system when witnesses recall information concerning individuals who have committed crimes. The factors that could affect the accuracy of EWT may include leading questions, age and anxiety. So can the human memory really be trusted with so many effecting factors? Loftus and Palmer (1974) conducted a study with the aim of assessing the accuracy of memory after witnessing a car accident, and including leading questions to assess whether they could affect immediate recall. The researchers showed forty five students seven different traffic accidents, and giving each participant a questionnaire asking specific questions about the accidents. They also asked the critical question of ‘how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?’ however the other groups where given other verbs of smashed, collided, bumped and contacted instead of hit. Their findings included they word ‘smashed’ generated the highest mean score of 40.8 mph and ‘contacted’ generated the lowest of 31.8 mph. Loftus and Palmer reached the conclusion that the form of questioning has a significant effect on witnesses accounts of events. Therefore EWT is unreliable and inaccurate according to these researchers, although others can dispute this. Yuille and Cutshall (1986) interviewed thirteen people who had witnessed an armed robbery in Canada. These interviews took place four months later, and the...
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...There are many weaknesses and problems with the EWT used in this trial: firstly, at the first interview there was some inconsistency in the group’s descriptions of the robber (2 said he had brown hair and 2 said he had blonde hair), this shows a problem with the EWT used in the trial as clearly straight after the event (the eye witnesses memories of the event would have been the clearest as it had just happened), however as they were interviewed in a group all 4 members of the group heard what the others had to say about the event- subsequently two of the witnesses changed what they said and thus all four claimed he had blonde hair. This is a clear problem with the testimony used in the trial as as all the witnesses were interviewed at the event in a group and due to social desirability and conformity they changed their remembrance of the event- therefore what they said in court may have not been an accurate account of what they think they actually saw. Weapon focus may also have had an effect in this case and this would have also caused a problem with the EWT used as the criminal used a weapon, and as that weapon is a threat to these people’s lives then they would have focussed on that weapon, and as a result this would have distorted what they remembered about the rest of the event (i.e. what the criminal looked like) which makes the EWT used invalid. The police in the investigation did also lead the witnesses to a desired answer as in the third interview they showed them...
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...distorted: Eyewitness testimony (EWT) is the evidence provided by people who witnesses a particular event or crime. It relies on recall from memory. EWT includes, for example, descriptions or criminals (e.g. hair colour, height) and crime scenes (e.g. time, date, location). Witnesses are often inaccurate in their recollection of events and the people involved. As you can probably imagine, this has important implications when it comes to police interviews. Many cognitive psychologists focus on working out what factors affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimony, and how accuracy can be improved in interviews. Loftus and palmer (1974) studied eyewitness testimony and investigated how EWT can be distorted. Loftus and Zanni (1975) also looked at leading questions. Loftus and Zanni (1975) showed participants a film of a car accident, then asked them either ‘did you see the broken headlight?’ or ‘did you see a broken headlight?’ there was no broken headlight, but 7% of those asked about ‘a’ broken headlight claimed they saw one, compared to 17% in the group asked about the accuracy of people’s memories of an event. The accuracy of eyewitness testimony is affected by many factors as well as leading questions, there are other factors that can affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. The age of the witness can affect the accuracy of recall, Valentine and Coxon (1997) studied this and it showed that the age of the witness can have an effect on the accuracy of eyewitness...
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...Social Influence 1. What are the three types of conformity? 2. What are two explanations of conformity? 3. What is meant by compliance? 4. What is meant by internalisation? 5. What is meant by identification? 6. How did Zimbardo provide evidence for identification? 7. What is meant by normative social influence? 8. What is meant by informational social influence? 9. What were the findings from Asch’s experiment? 10. What was Asch’s procedure? 11. Describe Milgram’s procedure for his obedience experiment. 12. What were the findings from Milgram’s experiment? 13. Describe Milgram’s variation where proximity was changed, and state the findings. 14. Describe Milgram’s variation where location was changed, and state the findings. 15. Describe Milgram’s variation where uniform was changed, and state the findings. 16. What is the agentic shift explanation of obedience? 17. What does the dispositional explanation of obedience say about obedience? 18. What is meant by Locus of Control? And how does it affect resistance to obedience? 19. What features of a minority are needed for social change? 20. What was Moscovici’s procedure? 21. What did Moscovici’s results tell us about minority influence? Memory 1. Draw a diagram showing the MSM and the processes involved. 2. What is the coding, duration and capacity of Sensory, Short-term and Long-term memory? 3. Describe two research studies that...
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...Name | Aim | As Psychology Key Studies – Cognitive As Psychology Key Studies – Cognitive Method | Findings | Conclusion | Evaluation | Milner et al1957 | To see where STM is stored | HM Who suffered from frequent epilepsy, had his hippocampus removed | Could not form new LTM. Reading a book without realising he read it before | * | * | Peterson & Peterson1959 | Duration of S/LTM | Pps were shown nonsense trigram e.g. NHB and had different time intervals 3, 6, 9…18. Distraction task was to count back in 3s from a given number | The longer the interval, the harder it is to remember i.e. 3 was the easiest and 18 the hardest | When rehearsal is prevented, very little can stay in STM for over 18 seconds | * Reliable – Lab experiment * Lacks ecological validity as nonsense trigrams are artificial * Pps saw many different trigrams and may get mixed up making only the 1st one realistic | Bahrick et al1975 | Duration of LTM and to study VLTM | Asked pps to name students from year book through name recall or photo recognition | It is weaker as you get older but also depending on the way of recall e.g. name or photo etc. | The study shows evidence of VLTMs in a real life setting. Recognition is better recall; so there may be a huge store of info. It’s not always easy to access but you may require help to get to it | * High ecological validity – field experiment * Hard to control all variables – less reliable * This type of info may be rehearsed. * Cannot...
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...Eyewitness testimony is a legal term. It is the detailed account given by a witness in a courtroom, describing what they perceived happened during the specific incident under investigation. This is used as evidence to show what happened from a witness’s point of view. Eyewitness testimony is a crucial area of research in cognitive psychology and human memory; studies into eyewitness testimony have found that it can be affected by many factors. Elizabeth Loftus, a leading researcher in eyewitness testimony, conducted studies to demonstrate that memory is not a factual recording of an event and that memories can become distorted by other information which occurs after the event. Loftus and Palmer (1974) study consisted of two laboratory experiments; both were examples of an independent measures design. The independent variable in both of the experiments is the verb used. The dependent variable in the first experiment is the participant’s speed estimate and the dependent variable in the second experiment is whether the participant believed they saw glass. In the first experiment 45 students from the University of Washington were shown video clips, short excerpts from safety films made for driver education, which were 5 to 30 seconds long. They were split into 5 groups, with 9 participants in each group. After each clip the students were asked to write a report of the accident they had just seen. They were also asked to answer some specific questions but the crucial question...
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...A Case of Wrongful Conviction - Mark Scheme A01 (max 5 marks) Anxiety and misleading information both stated as possible factors in affecting EWT in this case. Inconsistency in EWT identified – brown hair or blond hair in first interviews. Interviewing in a group stated as less good than interviewing individually. EW’s may mislead each other by being interviewed in a group. Third interview conducted three weeks after first interview / final line-up was several months after the crime SO recall less likely to be accurate after this time lag compared to immediately after the event. Mixed EW certainty over ID from the photo - two bystanders were sure of the perpetrator’s ID from the photo, but the main victim (cashier) and other bystander were not. Cognitive interviews (CI) would be better than standard interviews for better recall detail and accuracy. Link to research showing CI are better. A02 (max 5 marks) Fewer inconsistencies in second interview may have been due to first interview being a group interview – EW s may have been misled or guided by others’ statements. Appropriately made research link e.g. Loftus (1975) / Loftus (1978) or Loftus and Palmer (1974), with brief outline of the research study. Research e.g. Christianson and Hubinette (1993) or Yuille and Cutshall (1986) shows main victim of / those closest to centre of violent crimes usually most accurate with recall of events. Since the cashier was initially unsure of James Taylor (from photo) being...
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...There has been a lot of research into what effects eyewitness testimony (EWT), one of these being age. In 2001, Poole and Lindsay conducted an experiment to find out whether children could source monitor. They got children (aged 3-8) to watch a science demonstration and then listen to a story afterwards. When questioned later on, they found that the younger children got the information sources mixed up and so they wouldn’t make effective eyewitnesses. However, the younger children would lack schemas and the vocabulary needed to describe the science experiment. This means that they wouldn’t have been able to describe the experiment when asked to recall it, and therefore would make this experiment less valid. Anastasi and Rhodes performed an experiment in 2006 to see if recall is better when identifying people from the same age range (own age bias). They showed 24 photos to 3 age groups and then later they were shown 48 photos and had to identify the original 24. They found that generally the younger age groups were better at recall, but all age groups were better at recognising their own age group. They concluded that it’s easier to recall people in your own age range. This experiment was conducted in a lab, so lacks mundane realism and so would have affected the results. Also, individual differences would have affected the results because some of the photos may look like people you know, so recall would be better. Yarmey conducted an experiment to see if age affects recall...
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...Contributions to Society For each of the 5 approaches from AS you must know 2 ways in which it has contributed (been useful) to society. For Child, Criminology and Clinical you must know one contribution from each. For many of the approaches this can be therapies that are used for treating different behaviours. Social 1. Understanding Prejudice · Social approach helps us to understand why prejudice occurs. · SIT explains that prejudice occurs by simply belonging to a group– we belong to an in group and those not part of this are considered the out group. We categorise into these groups and identify with in group members by the beliefs we have and what we wear. In order to make our in group look good we display in group favouritism and show a preference for our in group and seeing their behaviours in a positive light. The behaviour of the out group we put down, and this boosts the in group self-esteem. · Realistic conflict theory suggests prejudice between groups occurs when there is competition for resources, and that it is not simply belonging to a group. This can explain why many groups can live alongside each other in harmony, which SIT cannot explain. · An example of SIT in action is football fans as they categorise themselves into teams e.g. either Man U or Chelsea and wear team colours e.g. red or blue. When these teams play they will call the fans of the rival team names to raise their own teams self-esteem. · Prejudice can account for a...
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...Effects of misleading question on eyewitness testimony. Aim: this was to find out if misleading questions distorts the accuracy of EWT. Method: loftus and palmer carried out a lab experiment which involved 45 students. They were shown 7 clips of a traffic accident. Afterwards the participants were given a questionnaire to answer series of questions. Although a critical question was asked, which was “how fast was the car going before hitting the other car”. Here the P’s were being split, one group were given this question while the others 5 groups were given verbs such as: smashed, collided, bumped and contacted instead of hit. Result: smashed (40.8), collided (39.3), bumped (38.1), contacted (31.8), hit (34) Findings: loftus and palmer found that the P’s weren’t able to recall the investigation properly due to the verbs that were given. strengths | weaknesses | * | * It lacks mundane realism because it isn’t likely to happen in real life. * It was done in a lab therefore it lacks ecological validity. It is within an artificial setting * P may not be emotionally aroused as they watch a video because it is not the same as real life * P also may not feel any sense of responsibility as they would have felt in real life. * Because P’s took part in all the studies they might have shown demand characteristics. * Small sample size limits generalizability | Effects of age on eyewitness testimony. Aim: conducted an experiment to see if age affects recall ability...
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...the long-term store through rehearsal or verbally repeating it. The more something is rehearsed the stronger the memory trace in the long-term memory. The main emphasis of this model is on the structure of memory on rehearsal | A02Case studies support to the multi-store modelGlanzer and Cunitz found that when rehearsal is prevented, the recency effect disappears.There is evidence that encoding is different in short term and long-term memory. For example Baddeley There are huge differences in the duration of information in the short term and long term memory (Peterson & Peterson). (Bahrick et al.)oversimplified. (reductionist) | Outline and evaluate the working memory model (12) | Episodic buffer was added by Baddeley in 2000 | Active process: PET scans Amnesiac case studies Shallice & Warrington (1974) Baddeley (1986) found that patients with damage to their frontal lobe had problems concentrating suggesting damage to the central executive (researcher biased) | Outline and evaluate the cognitive interview (12)Outline and evaluate how a cognitive interview can be used to improve the accuracy of eyewitness testimony (EWT). (12) | Findings concerning the unreliability of eye-witness accounts have led researchers to attempt to devise methods for improving retrieval. One of these methods is the cognitive interview (Fisher and Geiselman, 1992). used by the police...
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...eyewitness encoding the information they have witnessed the very second it happened, making sure they are describing the order of the events and the people involved. It also consists of the witness retaining information for a period of time (this can be a very long time) and finally it consists of the witness retrieving the information whilst they are in court. Eyewitness Testimony does have real life applicability as many people through DNA and false witnesses are sent to prison for crimes they did not commit therefore it is important to fully understand EWT to avoid innocent people being wrongfully punished. Eye witness testimonies are affected by a number of factors, but the one that I am going to focus on is anxiety. Many different laboratory studies and some ‘real life’ studies have generally shown recall is less accurate in people who have witnessed particularly distressing or anxiety filled situations. The weapon focus effect was created by Loftus (1979), she asked participants to sit outside a laboratory where they thought they were waiting to participate in an experiment, but they were actually already in it. As they were 'waiting', they heard a discussion between two people inside the laboratory. In one group, participants heard a discussion about an equipment failure, a man then appeared from the room with greasy hands holding a pen. In the other group, participants heard a hostile discussion, followed by the sound of breaking glass and overturned furniture, a man then...
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...Centre Number For Examiner’s Use Candidate Number Surname Other Names Examiner’s Initials Candidate Signature Question General Certificate of Education Advanced Subsidiary Examination June 2013 Psychology (Specification A) Unit 1 1 2 PSYA1 Cognitive Psychology, Developmental Psychology and Research Methods Wednesday 22 May 2013 Mark 9.00 am to 10.30 am 3 4 5 6 7 8 You will need no other materials. 9 Time allowed 1 hour 30 minutes 10 Instructions Use black ink or black ball-point pen. Fill in the boxes at the top of this page. Answer all questions. You must answer the questions in the spaces provided. Do not write outside the box around each page or on blank pages. Do all rough work in this book. Cross through any work you do not want to be marked. TOTAL Information The marks for questions are shown in brackets. The maximum mark for this paper is 72. Question 8 should be answered in continuous prose. You may use the space provided to plan your answer. In Question 8, you will be assessed on your ability to: – use good English – organise information clearly – use specialist vocabulary where appropriate. (JUn13psyA101) G/T90614 6/6/6/6/ PSYA1 2 Do not write outside the box Section A Cognitive Psychology and Research Methods Answer all questions in the spaces provided. Total for this question: 4 marks 1 According to the multi-store model of memory...
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...Centre Number Surname Other Names Candidate Signature Candidate Number For Examiner’s Use Examiner’s Initials Question Mark General Certificate of Education Advanced Subsidiary Examination June 2013 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Psychology (Specification A) Unit 1 PSYA1 Cognitive Psychology, Developmental Psychology and Research Methods 9.00 am to 10.30 am Wednesday 22 May 2013 You will need no other materials. Time allowed 1 hour 30 minutes Instructions Use black ink or black ball-point pen. Fill in the boxes at the top of this page. Answer all questions. You must answer the questions in the spaces provided. Do not write outside the box around each page or on blank pages. Do all rough work in this book. Cross through any work you do not want to be marked. Information The marks for questions are shown in brackets. The maximum mark for this paper is 72. Question 8 should be answered in continuous prose. You may use the space provided to plan your answer. In Question 8, you will be assessed on your ability to: – use good English – organise information clearly – use specialist vocabulary where appropriate. 10 TOTAL (JUn13psyA101) G/T90614 6/6/6/6/ PSYA1 2 Section A Cognitive Psychology and Research Methods Answer all questions in the spaces provided. Do not write outside the box Total for this question: 4 marks 1 According to the multi-store model of memory, there are several ways in which short-term memory and...
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