Y2: Psychology: Criminal: Practical

Bartlett (1932) found that memory is fallible due to our schemas changing details when reconstructing. Loftus and Palmer (1974) found that the use of leading questions significantly changed the recall of the speed of a vehicle. However, Yuille and Cutshall (1986) found that leading questions had no effect on witnesses to a real crime.

To investigate the number of ppts who responded correctly and incorrectly when asked a leafing question (did you see the gun?) compared to a non-leading question (did you see a gun?) in eye witness recall.

IV = Leading question vs no leading question (did you see THE gun? vs did you see A gun?)

DV = Number of people who answered yes to the leading questions which was incorrect, compared to those who said no which was correct

Controls = All ppts received the same questions in the same order and watched the same clip

There will be a significantly higher number of ppts who answer incorrectly (yes) to the leading question (did you see THE gun?) compared to the non-leading question (did you see A gun?).

There will be no significant difference in the number of ppts who answered incorrectly (yes) to the leading question (did you see THE gun?) compared to the non-leading question (did you see A gun?). Any difference will be due to chance.

• 16 ppts

- From KEDST

Opportunity

Questionnaire.

Independent measures due to wanting to compare between the use of a leading question and no leading question.

• We looked for a video clip on Youtube of a non-emotive crime and found a burglary of a jewellery store without weapons

• We compiled a list of 10 non-leading questions and 1 leading question (did you see THE gun?) that would change to did you see A gun? for the control

• The 16 students in the opportunity sample were given a blurb of the study that showed them their ethical considerations with a box to tick for consent

• They were shown a 1 min 30 secs clip of the jewellery heist on a mobile phone that was followed by the list of 10 questions

• The controls received 10 non-leading questions and the experimentals received 9 non-leading questions with 1 leading question (did you see THE gun?) in 6th

• Only interested in the 6th question in which an incorrect answer on the experimental was ‘yes’ and the correct answer was ‘no’ for both conditions

• Ppts were only told the aim after they completed the questionnaire to avoid DCs and were once again shown the blurb to give them the opportunity to withdraw

• 3/16 answered yes to the leading question

• 11/16 people answered no to the leading and non-leading question

• A chi-sqaured test was conducted with a calculated value of 0.29 which was not significant due to being lower than the critical value of 2.71 at a value of p<0.05 with 1 degree of freedom

• Therefore we accept our null hypothesis and any differences were due to chance

• We found no significant difference between those who answered the leading question correctly compared to incorrectly and so we accept our null hypothesis and any differences were due to chance

• This doesn’t follow the trend of previous research from Loftus and Palmer (1974) who found leading questions affected recall

• We support Yuille and Cutshall’s (1986) research who also found no affect of leading questions on accuracy of recall

P - High
E - Used an opportunity sample of 16 KEDST students
E - This is representative of witnesses of a crime who all happen to be there at the same time
P - Low
E - Sample of only 16 students who were the same age and from Stourbridge
E - This therefore cannot represent a wider population or other ages such as the elderly

P - High
E - Standardised procedure of the same questions in the same order with the leading question in 6th place for each ppt
E - Therefore easy to replicate and compare answers
P - High
E - The questionnaire provided quantitative data due to closed questions of yes or no
E - Therefore there is objective scientific analysis of the answers

P - Yes
E - Our study demonstrated that leading questions didn’t affect the accuracy of recall from a 1 min 30 secs video of a jewellery
E - This suggests that police should be made aware of the possible influence of leading questions as other research has suggested a correlation

P - Low ecological
E - Ppts watched a 1 min 30 secs video clip of a jewellery heist on a phone in a controlled environment on their own
E - Therefore it was not their natural environment so may not reflect how good their memory is in a situation they are familiar with
P - Low task
E - Ppts answered a 10 question questionnaire with the 6th question being critical of leading (did you see THE gun) or non-leading (did you see A gun?)
E - Ppts were aware they were in a study therefore may have shown DCs in their answers and so doesn’t reflect how real information would be gathered in an EWT

P - Ethical
E - The crime witnessed was not staged and instead a 1 min 30 secs video clip of a jewellery heist
E - Therefore wouldn’t have caused as much psychological distress as a staged one
P - Unethical
E - Ppts didn’t now the true aim of the study due to concealing the purpose of question 6 being leading and non-leading
E - Therefore they were deceived and so could not have given full informed consent

1) Stage the incident of the crime to improve validity of attention and stress that may affect memory
2) Use an interview instead of a questionnaire to reflect how witnesses would be interviewed by the police to increase ecological validity
3) Gain a higher sample size to represent memory recall to improve generalisability of all ages