Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus Leading Questions And The Eyewitness Report

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Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus’ main focus in the 1975 journal article, “Leading Questions and the Eyewitness Report”, was on the influence of leading/misleading information in terms of both visual imagery and wording of questions in relation to eyewitness testimony. The problem that she investigated was that the questions asked about an event shortly after it occurs may distort the witness’ memory for that event. The research hypothesis was that the wording of questions asked immediately after an event may influence responses to questions asked considerably later and when the initial question contains either true or false presuppositions, the likelihood is increased that subjects will later report having seen the presupposed object. Undergraduate …show more content…

The author analyzed the data by the misinformation effect paradigm, which demonstrated that the memories of eyewitnesses are altered after being exposed to incorrect information about an event - through leading questions or other forms of post-event information; and that memory is highly malleable and open to suggestion. The misinformation effect became one of the most influential and widely known effects in psychology, and Loftus’ early work on the effect generated hundreds of follow-up studies examining factors that improve or worsen the accuracy of memories, and to explore the cognitive mechanisms underlying the …show more content…

This transition can take place because of the inherent importance of the information or as a result of repeated use or intentional repetition. Fortunately, long-term memory does not have the same limits that short-term memory does. The human brain appears to be able to hold an unlimited number of long-term memories for an indefinite amount of time.
Eyewitness testimony is an important area of research in cognitive psychology and human memory. The use of eye-witness testimony is often a primary source of evidence used in the judicial system. When there is no evidence to apprehend the accused, eye-witness testimony becomes an effective tool in apprehending the culprit. Juries tend to pay close attention to eyewitness testimony and generally find it a reliable source of information even when research into this area has found that eyewitness testimony can sometimes be

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