For ACADEMIC ResearchPro ONLY

Proposed Research Topic

This study will focus on the Eyewitness Testimony and the Misinformation Effect. This is in relation to the criminal justice system.

The Research Question

What factors contribute to the misinformation effect as it applies to witness testimonies during criminal justice system submissions hearings from witnesses in crimes?

Hypotheses

Witnesses forget vital information regarding the observations made in various scenes resorting to misinformation during airing of their witnesses and various fundamental ways can be used to reduce misinformation effect.

Eyewitness Testimony and the Misinformation Effect

Annotated Bibliography

Malwina, S., & Romuald, P. (2013). Promoting eyewitness testimony quality: Warning vs. reinforced self-affirmation as methods of reduction of the misinformation effect.

This research journal stipulates ways in which warning and reinforced self-affirmation can be used to reduce the misinformation effect on witnesses. In the research, participants are exposed to watch some event after which they are made to read descriptions of the events with some incorrect information. The hypothesis used is confirmed when the participants report false details when misled. The materials used include an audio plus a description in which there were six incorrect details of the audio. The participants were later asked ten open-ended questions. A control experiment composed of a group of participants who are not misled reports correct information. Reinforced self-reaffirmation proved to reduce misinformation effect many times although its applicability in reducing misinformation effect on witnesses is limited as witnesses in reality can only be influenced after exposure to information. This research is essential as it proves the hypothesis of misinformation effect on witnesses after exposure to false details of events (Malwina & Romuald, 2013).

Stephen, P., Ainslie, M., Sabrina, B., & Leanne, B. (2010, Jan). A Prospective Investigation of the Vulnerability of Memory for Positive and Negative Emotional Scenes to the Misinformation Effect.

In this study, researchers investigate the effect of emotional content and passage of time on events to the misinformation and susceptibility of remembering the events. Participants were shown images of highly positive and negative events and asked questions on the images after a week or a month. Control experiment was performed whereby participants were misled on the information of the images. In the results, misled participants were substantially less accurate in answering the questions. In addition, passage of time decreased the accuracy of the participants. In addition, negative images were more susceptible to false memories as compared to positive images. This study implicates negative emotions to the misinformation effect. This study affirms the conclusions of psychological effects of misinformation and emotions on eyewitness evidence (Stephen, Ainslie, Sabrina, & Leanne, 2010).

Daniel, G., Karen, P., & Richard, W. (2013). The Gestural Misinformation Effect: Skewing Eyewitness Testimony Through Gesture.

In this journal, focus is on the effect of nonverbal communication on misinformation effect. Participants watched video footage of a crime scene and later asked questions on the events in the video. In two of the experiments, participants were asked questions by an on-screen interviewer who made gestures in words containing misleading information. In the third interview a live interview was conducted with gestures that influenced the answers of the participants. These experiments found a correlation between gestures and witness evidence. This study Implicates gestures to misinformation effect and lays various applicability of the study in the legal arena. This journal is crucial in analysis of effects of gestures in the misinformation effect on eyewitnesses as it is based on practical experiments (Daniel, Karen, & Richard, 2013).

Danna, C., Maree, H., Maryanne, G., & David, H. (2011, November.). Whatever Gave You That Idea? False Memories Following Equivalence Training: A Behavioral Account of the Misinformation Effect

This journal gives accounts of effects of myriad sources of information on witness information. It analyses effects of training on the misinformation effect by experiments on participants. Participants were shown some patterns in a simple learning phase and later asked tasked with identifying the patterns. One group of participants was offered training with incorporation of information from many sources regarding the patterns. In the recognition test, participants who were given training with misleading information were more likely to misidentify the patterns as compared to the group that was not given such training. This study sums up by showing the effects of misleading information and many sources of information on misinformation effect. Witnesses’ memory tend to lapse after getting information from various sources. This journal will be paramount in the research on the effects of misinformation on the witness evidence (Danna, Maree, Maryanne, & David, 2011).

Helen, P., Richard, K., & Sarah, M. (2012). Can a witness report hearsay evidence unintentionally? The effects of discussion on eyewitness memory.

This journal focuses attention on the effect of co-witness information on misinformation effect to a witness. In this journal, study was conducted whereby; a witness was exposed to co-witness information before question time. In the experiment, participants were shown a video of a crime scene and asked to discuss the events in groups with some of the participants getting misleading information from their group partners. The participants were then asked to record account of the events from the video and in a further experiment asked on the source of their information. In another experiment, participants were forewarned on the effect of sources of their information. The experiments concluded that there is high influence of co-witnesses on the information provided by the witnesses and thus the effect of co-witness information on the memory of the witness. Warnings provided no alteration to this effect. This journal is paramount in providing information regarding the effect of co-witness information in creating misinformation effect. It provides both theoretical and practical explanations on the effect of misleading information from other sources on misinformation effect to eyewitnesses (Helen, Richard, & Sarah, 2012)

Additional Bibliography

Gerald, E., Stephan, G., & William, H. (2007, July). Tainted Truth: Overcorrection For Misinformation Influence On Eyewitness Memory.

This journal focuses on the influence of witnesses’ forewarnings and post-warnings in enhancement of corrections for misinformation that could have existed in the testimonies. It focuses on the effect of monitoring of witnesses to prevent tainted truths in witnesses (Gerald, Stephan, & William, 2007).

Gennaro, P., Antonnio, P., & Jocelyn, B. A. (2014, August). The Role of Need for Cognitive Closure in Retrieval-Induced Forgetting and Misinformation Effects in Eyewitness Memory

This eyewitness research will aid in analyzing the effect and implications of eyewitnesses motivation in retrieval-induced forgetting that magnifies the misinformation effect (Gennaro, Antonnio, & Jocelyn, 2014).

Mark, R., Anna, R., Cortney, C., & Brooke, S. (2013, December). Collaborative Recall of Eyewitness Event Increases Misinformation Effect at 1Week

Through this research documented in this journal, researchers emphasize the importance of collaborative recalling by co-witnesses in reducing the misinformation effects as it reveals that co-witnesses when they are made to collaborate in recalling the circumstances of events reduce the rate of tainted truths (Mark, Anna, Cortney, & Brooke, 2013).

Kimberly, M., & John, G. (2004, June/July). Conformity to Misinformation and Time Delay Negatively Affect Eyewitness Confidence and Accuracy.

Time delay is focused in this research revealing more on the effects of confidence in incorporation of misinformation over time. This research shows more on the effects of misinformation effect over a period of time (Kimberly & John, 2004).

Gerald, E., William, H., & Walter, H. (2005, July). How eyewitnesses resist misinformation: Social postwarnings and the monitoring of memory characteristics.

In this journal, the researchers showed that warnings prove more to reduce misinformation than stricter response criterion on the witnesses of events (Gerald, William, & Walter, 2005).

Literature Review Outline

Misinformation Effects on Eyewitnesses Testimony

Research Question: What factors contribute to the misinformation effect as it applies to witness testimonies during criminal justice system submissions hearings from witnesses in crimes?

Implications: Effects such as introduction to misinformation, time delay, age of the witness, gesturing, and co-witness collaboration among other factors lead to tainting of witness evidence and can be dealt with using various factors to reduce misinformation effect.

Hypothesis: Witnesses forget vital information regarding the observations made in various scenes resorting to misinformation during airing of their witnesses and various fundamental ways can be used to reduce misinformation effect.

Review of the Literature

How warnings to reduce misinformation effect in eyewitness testimony and implications (Malwina & Romuald, 2013), (Gerald, William, & Walter, 2005)

Difficulties dealing with misinformation effect from eyewitnesses (Helen, Richard, & Sarah, 2012), (Gerald, Stephan, & William, 2007)

Existence of relationship between time and misinformation affecting eyewitnesses in criminal cases and its implications (Kimberly & John, 2004) (Mark, Anna, Cortney, & Brooke, 2013)

Collaborative memory (Mark, Anna, Cortney, & Brooke, 2013)

Unintentional ways of reporting hearsay as witness (Stephen, Ainslie, Sabrina, & Leanne, 2010)

Effects of gestures on misinformation (Daniel, Karen, & Richard, 2013)

Fundamental ways of dealing with misinformation effect (Stephen, Ainslie, Sabrina, & Leanne, 2010)

Sample Description

This researcher would use probabilistic sampling whereby the research will use a defined sample of the witnesses submitted by various witnesses in the courts and other experiments in order to analyze whether the actual facts of the events are capture. In this sense, the sample will have implications on overall population of the research as various participants will be assessed from the various age groups and gender. In addition, generalization will be impacted by use of general selection of geographical areas of the study.

Inclusion criteria to be used in this study will involve the selection of various gender and age groups to determine the implications of groups in the study. In addition, the sampling method will be determined through use of actual evidences and analysis of the actual facts with experiments of control experiments. To that end, the research will have abiding effects on the output and overall results will be analyzed and recorded to give adequate support and analysis of the literature reviewed. There are ethical issues that might be encountered when collecting information from the research such as the bias by the selected sample and the implication.

References (5)

Daniel, G., Karen, P., & Richard, W. (2013). The Gestural Misinformation Effect: Skewing Eyewitness Testimony Through Gesture. The American Journal of Psychology, 126(3), 301. Retrieved September 10, 2014, from https://login.libproxy.edmc.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.libproxy.edmc.edu/docview/1433351609?accountid=34899

Danna, C., Maree, H., Maryanne, G., & David, H. (2011, November.). Whatever Gave You That Idea? False Memories Following Equivalence Training: A Behavioral Account of the Misinformation Effect. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 96(3), 343-362. Retrieved September 10, 2014, from https://login.libproxy.edmc.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.libproxy.edmc.edu/docview/906851031?accountid=34899

Helen, P., Richard, K., & Sarah, M. (2012). Can a witness report hearsay evidence unintentionally? The effects of discussion on eyewitness memory. Psychology, Crime & Law : PC & L, 18(6), 505. Retrieved September 10, 2014, from https://login.libproxy.edmc.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.libproxy.edmc.edu/docview/1024130721?accountid=34899

Malwina, S., & Romuald, P. (2013). Promoting eyewitness testimony quality: Warning vs. reinforced self-affirmation as methods of reduction of the misinformation effect. Polish Psychological Bulletin, 44(1), 85-91. Retrieved September 10, 2014, from https://login.libproxy.edmc.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.libproxy.edmc.edu/docview/1545553874?accountid=34899

Stephen, P., Ainslie, M., Sabrina, B., & Leanne, B. (2010, Jan). A Prospective Investigation of the Vulnerability of Memory for Positive and Negative Emotional Scenes to the Misinformation Effect. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 42(1), 55-61. Retrieved September 10, 2014, from https://login.libproxy.edmc.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.libproxy.edmc.edu/docview/220494932?accountid=34899

.Additional References (5)

Gennaro, P., Antonnio, P., & Jocelyn, B. A. (2014, August). The Role of Need for Cognitive Closure in Retrieval-Induced Forgetting and Misinformation Effects in Eyewitness Memory. Social Cognition, 32(4), 337-359.

Retrieved September 20, 2014, from https://login.libproxy.edmc.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.libproxy.edmc.edu/docview/1561093946?accountid=34899

Gerald, E., Stephan, G., & William, H. (2007, July). Tainted Truth: Overcorrection For Misinformation Influence On Eyewitness Memory. Social Cognition, 25(3), 367-409.

Retrieved September 20, 2014, from https://login.libproxy.edmc.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.libproxy.edmc.edu/docview/229574734?accountid=34899

Gerald, E., William, H., & Walter, H. (2005, July). How eyewitnesses resist misinformation: Social postwarnings and the monitoring of memory characteristics. Memory & Cognition (pre-2011), 33(5), 770-82.

Retrieved September 20, 2014, from https://login.libproxy.edmc.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.libproxy.edmc.edu/docview/217439358?accountid=34899

Kimberly, M., & John, G. (2004, June/July). Conformity to Misinformation and Time Delay Negatively Affect Eyewitness Confidence and Accuracy. North American Journal of Psychology, 6(2), 227-238.

Retrieved September 20, 2014, from

https://login.libproxy.edmc.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.libproxy.edmc.edu/docview/198016691?accountid=34899

Mark, R., Anna, R., Cortney, C., & Brooke, S. (2013, December). Collaborative Recall of Eyewitness Event Increases Misinformation Effect at 1Week. North American Journal of Psychology, 15(3), 495-512.

Retrieved September 20, 2014, from

https://login.libproxy.edmc.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.libproxy.edmc.edu/docview/1467525296?accountid=34899