Misleading Information and Eye Witness Testimony- Detailed Notes

Misleading Information and EWT

Elizabeth Loftus was interested in the effects of information provided after the event and carried out many studies showing that memory for events can be changed or supplemented by providing misleading information later.

Loftus and Zanni (1975)

 They showed that a minor difference in the wording of a question can influence the recall in EWT. They showed pps a short video of a car accident.They were then asked questions; half were asked ‘had they seen “a” broken headlight?’ The other half were asked, ‘had they seen “the” broken headlight?’ Although there was no broken headlight, 17% of the people asked with “the” reported seeing one, opposed to only 7% from the “a” group.

Evaluation

 - Lab experiment which means it was artificial and lacked ecological validty. 

 + As…