Download 3-anxiety-and-ewt

Question 1
What are the two types of cue in the
cue-dependent theory of forgetting?
Question 2
Name two psychologists who have
studied memory and say which
theory/topic it relates to.
Question 3
Give one fact about the participants in
Loftus and Palmer’s study.
Question 4
Explain in your own words, what a
memory trace is.
Question 5
Give two features about the short-term
memory store.
Question 6
Name three of the verbs used in Loftus
and Palmer’s study.
Answers:
1. Internal and external – context and state / meaning and no
meaning
2. Loftus = EWT Baddeley = STM
3. All psychology students
4. Memory trace = path laid down when a memory is created /
engram
5. Capacity = 7 +/- 2 Duration = max 30secs
encoding
= visual / semantic / acoustic
6. Smashed / collided / hit / bumped / contacted
HOMEWORK CHECK
In pairs, develop a definition for source monitoring theory
and conformity theory – max 6 words for each definition!
Source monitoring: unsure of
source of the memory
Conformity theory: go along with
others
• According to source monitoring theory, memories of the event are genuinely distorted. The eyewitness can recall
information about the event (accurate and inaccurate), but they can’t recall where it came from. Was it from their
own memory of the event or did they hear it from someone else? This is known as source confusion.
• Conformity theory, on the other hand, argues that eyewitness memories are not actually distorted by post-event
discussion. Instead, the eyewitness’s recall appears to change only because they go along with the accounts of cowitnesses. They do this either to win social approval, or because they genuinely believe other witnesses are right
and they are wrong
What is the main difference
between the theories?
SM = memory IS distorted
CT = memory NOT distorted
Factors affecting EWT
Spec check:
Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony:
• misleading information, including leading questions and post-event
discussion; anxiety.
misleading information
leading questions
anxiety
post-event discussion
Previous lessons
Todays lesson
Lesson Objectives
Lesson Objectives:
- Briefly describe and evaluate research that has explored
anxiety impacting on EWT
- Identify methodological problems with the research
- Describe 4 pieces of research looking at EWT
- Compare and contrast the 4 pieces of research using
GRAVE criteria
Looking at the pictures in front of you…
…and pg 42 in your packs, complete the tasks
Then plot your data… what does it show?
Anxiety and EWT:
• What about how the eyewitness is feeling? Any stress suffered?
• A real crime or violence, usually imparts a feeling of anxiety or stress on the
witnesses.
• The Yerkes-Dodson law (1908) suggests that up to a point, stress improves
performance but after that point, it has a bad effect on performance.
• Deffenbacher (1983) proposed that the effect of stress on EWT followed that
law
Diagram of Yerkes-Dodson law:
Optimum recall,
past this point,
recall declines.
Recall
Anxiety levels
Jigsaw task…
You need to become an ‘expert’ on one study which you will then have to
explain to other people in the class.
The goal is that you will each end up with enough information to be able to
briefly outline and evaluate 4 studies – and you will have filled in the grid
on p 47
Read your study… share your study with the people on your new table
Overview of the studies
• Deffenbacher (1983) was one of the first to investigate links between stress
and EWT. He found that as we become moderately stressed/anxious,
performance in EWT improves. As we hit the peak of stress our levels of
accuracy drop because we feel fatigued.
• A naturalistic study by Yuille & Cutshall (1986) studies witnesses to a robbery
where people had actually been killed or wounded. They found that
witnesses were very accurate despite the extreme levels of stress.
• This has been supported by a study by Christianson & Hubinette (1993)
where victims of a bank robbery who had been subjected to the most stress,
were actually the most accurate witnesses. Perhaps because their lives
depended on it?
Research Methods check:
• What ethical issues may arise from the Yuille and Cutshall (1986)
study? Explain your answer.
• Do the same for the Christianson and Hubinette (1993) study.
Continued:
• Research that supports this idea comes from Peters (1988). Tested people visiting their
local health centre. They visited the nurse, for an injection, then spent time with a
researcher.
• A week later they were asked to describe the researcher and the nurse. It was found
that they remembered the researcher better than the nurse. This was due to the fact
their anxiety levels were heightened at the time they were chatting to the researcher
(after injection).
• Deffenbacher (2004): reviewed his earlier approach and the claims it was over
simplistic.
• He now believes that as stress increases, so does the accuracy of the memory. When it
hits the maximum there is a catastrophic collapse, and accuracy is then severely
lacking.
Other factors to consider:
Add these to your
research banks
Age of witness:
• Age does seem to play a role in how much information we
can recall. Dent (1988) found that children perform
significantly worse than adults when recalling details of
events and also don’t do as well when asked specific
questions.
• However, if they are interested in a topic children can
recall just as well as adults do. (King and Yuille, 1987).
• Children also appear to accept inaccurate information
from adults for fear of contradicting adult authority
figures.
Continued:
• In a study specific to EWT Ochsner et al (1999) asked children to watch a
staged theft. They found more accurate recall compared to children who
saw the staged event without the theft.
• In this case it could be that the children consolidated the memory of the
theft by telling others about it, or took the theft more seriously. What type
of processing could you suggest the children used?
• Older people also have poor recall of events. Their recall drops below that of
young people and middle aged people. They are more likely to make
mistakes and are poor at recalling specific details.
• Elderly men in particular are more prone to distortions through post-event
misleading information.
Evaluation:
Supporting Evidence:
Cohen and Faulkner (1989) showed p’s a film of a kidnapping and then
presented them with misleading details. It was found that the older p’s
(mean age 70) were a lot more likely to than the younger p’s (mean age
35) to have been mislead by the suggestive information.
Loftus et al (1991) also found this when p’s were shown a video tape of
a crime the older p’s were found to be more suggestible than the
younger adults who saw the tape.
Conflicting evidence:
Coxon and Valentine (1997) found that when comparing the suggestibility of children,
young adults and elderly people after watching a videotape of a crime, the elderly p’s
were worse at recall. However it was seen that when they were tested for
suggestibility they were no worse than the young adults. In fact they were seen to be
less suggestible.
It is still unclear why these age effects occur. Why do you think they occur?
Could it be that the younger p’s have been more used to memory tests recently? Can
you think of some examples? Or could it be that the older p’s poorer health may be a
factor in decline in memory? In fact could this be the important factor, not age????
Consolidation …
• Packs: pgs 44-46
• Reading: Mask 90-91