1. Memory and the power of suggestion

2. Objectives Describe how valid eye witness testimony is
Analyze the power of suggestion
Explain children's testimony

3. The eyewitness on trial
chapter 8
The eyewitness on trial
Eyewitnesses are not always reliable
Factors influencing accuracy
Cross race identification
Question wording (e.g., “crashed” vs “hit”)
Misleading information

4. Eye witness trial Alan Newton
Most misidentifications cross race
Because lots of people unfamiliar with or prejudiced toward ethnic groups
Ignore distinct features that could help
The Power of Suggestion
Distort Memories or Create False Ones

5. Elizabeth Loftus Testing memories of eye witness accounts
Showed videos of car collisions
Afterward researcher asked some of them “how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?”
Then asked for different words (independent variable) smashed, collided, bumped, hit, contacted… estimates varied on the word used
Smashed 40.8, collided 39.3, bumped 38.1, contacted 31.8

6. Headlight study (Loftus 1975)
Did you see a broken headlight?
Did you see the broken headlight?
the in the question presupposes a broken headlight OTOH, a makes no such presumption
Word Interjection is key
People who received the more likely to report seeing a broken head light than those receiving a

7. Misleading information
Loftus & Green (1980) witness report
Students shown picture of a man with straight hair, then heard description msn hsad light curly hair
When students reconstructed (like your memory) pictures of man 1/3 of students had curly hair
But when shown picture and hear correct description 95% create face correctly

8. Sum up power of suggestion
Leading questions
Suggestive comments
Misleading information
All affect memory of events and things you experience

9. chapter 8
Children’s testimony
Under what conditions are children more suggestible?
When they are very young
When interviewers’ expectations are clear
When other children’s memories for events are accessible

10. Power of suggestion and children
1980’s and 1990’s child abuse acquisitions sky rocketed in U.S. over day care centers
Therapists and police interview children
Children claim abuse, physical, emotional, sexual
Parents never saw abuse and children never complained about it
Some teachers go to jail
Most children do recall accurately most of the time However many children will say something happened when it did not
Leading questions and suggestions

11. chapter 8
Children’s testimony
When asked if a visitor committed acts that had not occurred, few 4–6 year olds said yes.
100% of 3-year olds said yes.
When investigators used techniques taken from real child-abuse investigations, most children said yes.

12. Summary
Eye witness
Children