Edexcel Psychology for A Level Yr 2 Revision Guide

Also in this series: Student Books Edexcel Psychology for A Level Year 1 & AS 978-1-911208-59-4 Edexcel Psychology for A Level Year 2 978-1-911208-60-0 Revision Guides Edexcel Psychology for A Level Year 1 & AS 978-1-912820-06-1 Edexcel Psychology for A Level Year 2 978-1-912820-07-8 www.illuminatepublishing.com Chapter3 Criminological psychology Factors influencing EWT: Reliability Eye-witness testimony (EWT) This is a legal termwhich refers to the account given by a witness of a crime or other dramatic event (e.g. car crash). Research addresses the issue ofwhether eye-witness accounts are reliable or not,and the different factors affecting this. Reliability= consistent, i.e. consistentwith the real events. Post-event information Information arriving after an event that may affect an eye-witness’ memory ofwhat happened. Humanmemory is reconstructive (seeBartlett’s theory in ourYear1Revision guide,page58): • Memory does not record events in exact detail (e.g. like a camera). • Instead, it tsmemorieswithin pre-existing frameworks of expectations and past knowledge ( schemas ). A person’s ability to recall a crimemay be basedmore on their schema of the event than onwhat actually occurred. Bartlett called this ‘effort aftermeaning’. Leading questions A form of post-event information that triggers schemas. A leadingquestion (or statement) suggests a particular answer because of theway it is phrased andmay point an eye-witness towards a speci c answer (see Loftus and Palmer,page118). e.g. ‘Was theman in the green coat holding a knife?’ – thismay suggest amore vivid (but not necessarily correct) account than ‘Was there aweapon involved?’. Thewitnessmay incorrectly access the information provided in the rst question, rather thanwhat they actually remember. The influence of anxiety Witnessing a dramatic event creates stress and anxiety whichmay affect the person’s ability to register and recall the event. Deffenbacher (1983) reviewed21 studies and concluded that: • Moderate anxiety helpsmemory (like an athlete produces their best performancewhen ‘pumped up’ before a crowd). • If an eye-witness’ anxiety continues to rise (and becomes extreme), this creates a decline in recall (see inverted-U graph on left). Weapon focus Weapon focus is oneway anxiety is pushed ‘over the edge’: • In violent crimeswhen the perpetrator is carrying a weapon, the brain’s natural tendency is to zoom in on that as themain source of stress. • So an eye-witness’ recall is relatively poor and other important details (e.g.what the perpetrator looked like or what s/hewaswearing) are not noticed or distorted. Weapon focus is explained by tunnel theory : • Presence of aweapon leads to selective attention. • This excludes or ignores competing bits of information. Apply it Concepts Jody andMarywere atdifferent checkoutswhen awoman raided the store.Mary is 80 andwas shocked that a womanwoulddo such a thing andwas scared. Jody, a teenager,wasn’t surprisedbut was terrifiedwhen thewoman ran atherwith a knife.After thewomanhad runoutof the shopwith themoney, another shopper said ‘Shewas about50, she should knowbetter!’ 1. Explainhowpost-event informationmight affectMary’smemoryof the event,when askedwhat shewitnessed. (3) 2. Explainhowweapon focusmight affect Jody’smemoryof the event,when askedwhat shewitnessed. (3) 3.Context essay: Discuss factors affecting the reliabilityofMary and Jody’s eye-witness testimony. (8) Low Medium High Anxiety level EWT Very good Verypoor Graph showing the inverted-U relationshipbetweenanxietyand recall. Bartlett used the folk tale War of the Ghosts to illustrate howmemory is shaped (reconstructed). Spec spotlight 6.1.7 Factors influencingeye-witness testimony, including consideration of reliability (includingpost-event informationandweapon focus). 114 AO1 Description Factors influencing EWT: Reliability Check it 1. Explain one way that weapon focus can influence the reliability of eye-witness testimony. (3) 2. Give one example of post- event information that might affect the reliability of eye-witness testimony. Your example can be from real life or psychological research. (2) 3. Standard essay: Evaluate factors that influence the reliability of eye-witness testimony. (8) or (16) 4. I&D essay: Evaluate whether psychology can be considered a science with reference to one application of psychology (e.g. clinical, criminological, child or health). (16) Revision booster You have learned about several different factors affecting EWT – however, you can only be asked specific questions about ‘post-event information’ and ‘weapon focus’ as these terms are in the specification. A strength is that research evidence shows the effect of leading questions. Loftus andPalmer (1974) showed participants video clips of car accidents and asked them to estimate how fast the carswere travelling. Participantswho heard ‘smashed’ gave higher estimates. In a follow-up, those hearing ‘smashed’ weremore likely to report seeing broken glass (therewas none). This suggests that post- event information in the form of leading questions has a signi cant effect on recall. Aweakness is that evidence from real-life crimes is contradictory. Yuille andCutshall (1986) assessed recall of13witnesses to a real-life shootingwho rated themselves as very anxious at the time. Eachwitnesswas initially interviewed by the police. About vemonths afterwards thewitnesses produced accurate accounts despite researchers including two leading questions in this second interview. This suggests that the effects of leading questions andweapon focusmay be less pronouncedwhen applied to real-life events. A strength of theweapon focus explanation is supporting evidence. Johnson andScott (1976) arranged for half of their participants to overhear an argument and see a manwith greasy hands carrying a pen (control). The other half saw aman with a blood-stained knife (experimental condition). 49% of controls later correctly identi ed the man (from50 photos) compared to33% in the experimental condition. (Participantswere not aware of being studied so this had high ecological validity.) This suggests that participants’ attention had been drawn towards theweapon and away from other peripheral details. CA However,Pickel (1998) found a similar effectwhen aman pulled out a raw chicken or aPillsburyDoughBoy to pay a cashier rather than presenting hiswallet. This suggests that ‘weapon focus’ is related to surprise asmuch as anxiety. Application:EWT research has brought about changes in the legal system. EWT research has led to the introduction of social framework evidence . InUS courts psychologistsmay be called to provide some ‘context’ to juries. This is often in the form of relevant psychological evidence that demonstrates the unreliability of such testimony. This suggests that researchwhich recognises the fallibility of humanmemory is useful in reducingmiscarriages of justice in legal cases. I&D extra:EWT studies illustrate practical issues in research design. Lab studies ofEWT exercise a high level of control of the environment in order to establish cause and effect. However,such studies lack real consequences (e.g. no one goes to prison) and participants don’t experience the anxiety of a real crime. Thismeans that research should include real-world observations to support the ndings of laboratory studies (e.g.Yuille and Cutshall,above). ‘Youwon’t get awaywith this,’ said the dog. ‘Psychological research suggests that the anxiety created by this situationwill enhancemy recall of the event.’ ‘That’s asmaybe,’ replied the sheep, but you’ll never pickme out of a line- up.’ Schemasaffectmemoriesat the time theyare stored and at the time theyare recalled. 115 AO3 Evaluation Each topic is covered on one spread helping you get straight to the point. Revision boosters provide invaluable exam hints and tips. Lots of illustrations and the odd corny joke help make the books very user- friendly! Spec spotlight so you know what you have to know. Exam-style questions help you check your knowledge and understanding. Detailed exam advice section is included at the start of the book. AO2 application questions on methods and concepts provide lots of application skills practice. Evaluation points neatly broken down into ‘Point’ ‘Elaboration’ and ‘This shows...’ (Conclusion). Edexcel Psychology for A Level Year 2 Revision Guide Everything you need to know for your exam!