Eyewitness testimony

Today we looked at a practical application of memory - whether or not our memories can be relied on or not - and the implications of this in court. Leading questions are one factor that can seriously alter people's memory for events, and we looked at Loftus & Palmer (1974) in detail. You need to know their aims, procedures, findings and conclusions and also some evaluation. The ppt is here.

We also looked at other factors that influence eyewitness testimony, namely schemas, age, anxiety and the reality or not of the situation. The ppt for this section is here. The sheet that you filled in on age & EWT is here.

We will have a progress test in two weeks time on EWT so your homework is to revise. Your other homework is to fill in page 11 of the RM booklets.

The working memory model continued....

Today we carried on with the working memory model -it's such an important topic I wanted to spend a bit more time on it.



Today's ppt is here. The three activities from today were all paper based, so if you were missing see me next lesson for copies.

We also reflected on feedback from the capacity, duration & encoding essays and thought about how to improve our next one. This is: 'Outline and evaluate the working memory model' (12 marks) - due Wednesday 26th November. Remember it should comprise 50% knowledge (AO1) and 50% evaluation (AO2).

Next lesson we'll cover eyewitness testimony plus the cognitive interview.