1. Cognitive Approach AS Level Psychology The core studies

2. Eye Witness Testimony

3. The study of human memory is a research area in COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY Eye witness testimony involves memory!

4. How reliable is your MEMORY? Class memory activities!

5. EYE WITNESS TESTIMONY? Elizabeth Loftus & Palmer TESTED The reliability of eye witness testimony Can the memory of an event be changed by the way witnesses are questioned? The effect of leading questions

6. LOFTUS & PALMER Class discussion: What is a leading question ? Do we agree that Memory is NOT like a camera - we always reconstruct our memories

7. LOFTUS& PALMER The title of their paper was: The reconstruction of an automobile destruction Their research involved TWO experiments

8. LOFTUS & PALMER Experiment 1 The participants - 45 students The procedure - Students watched film clips of car accidents After watching the films the students were asked to do TWO things

9. LOFTUS & PALMER Experiment 1 Write an account of what they had seen Answer questions about what they had seen One question was the CRITICAL QUESTION

10. LOFTUS & PALMER Experiment 1 THE CRITICAL QUESTION About how fast were the cars going when they (*******) each other There were five conditions (verbs) in the experiment (Five groups of students)

11. LOFTUS & PALMER Experiment 1 The five conditions (verbs) were CONTACTED HIT BUMPED COLLIDED SMASHED

12. LOFTUS & PALMER Experiment 1 The findings

13. LOFTUS & PALMER Experiment 1 What conclusion can you draw from the findings? What was the IV? What was the DV?

14. EYE WITNESS TESTIMONY The second experiment by Loftus & Palmer

15. LOFTUS & PALMER - Experiment 2 The participants - 150 students The procedure - Students watched a one minute film which showed a 4 second multiple car accident

16. LOFTUS & PALMER - Experiment 2 After the film The participants were divided into THREE EXPERIMENTAL GROUPS

17. LOFTUS & PALMER - Experiment 2 GROUP 1 was asked How fast were the cars going when they HIT each other?

18. LOFTUS & PALMER - Experiment 2 GROUP 2 was asked How fast were the cars going when they SMASHED INTO each other?

19. LOFTUS & PALMER - Experiment 2 GROUP 3 was asked NO QUESTION about the speed of the cars

20. LOFTUS & PALMER - Experiment 2 ONE WEEK LATER The participants returned and were asked more questions Including the critical question Did you see any broken glass?

21. LOFTUS & PALMER - Experiment 2 The findings Which group saw more broken glass?

22. LOFTUS & PALMER - Experiment 2 What was the DV in the second experiment? What conclusion can you draw from the findings?

23. LOFTUS & PALMER Was this research in any way unethical? Did this research have ECOLOGICAL validity? Was this a repeated measures design? or An independent measures design?

24. LOFTUS & PALMER Read the study In your general text, read up on what psychologists say about human memory According to Loftus & Palmer (in the 2 nd experiment) how did the leading question ‘change’ the memory ?

25. Eye Witness testimony Do you think that UNSUPPORTED EYE WITNESS TESTIMONY should be sufficient evidence upon which to convict someone?