Eyewitness Testimony (AQA A Level Psychology)

Exam Questions

57 mins8 questions
12 marks

Which two of A, B, C, D and E are associated with the cognitive interview technique?

  • Alter the perspective

  • Change the speaker

  • Match the direction

  • Remove the context

  • Reverse the order

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21 mark

Professor Tensanervous is interested in looking at the possible association between caffeine and eyewitness anxiety. She asks her participants to report how many cups of coffee they drink in a week, after which a confederate enters the test space and threatens the professor with a (fake) knife. Professor Tensanervous then asks the participants to write down how anxious they felt by this (fake) threat on a scale of 1-10 (10 being ‘extremely anxious’). Once the professor has her results she presents them in the following graph:

memory-tq-pack

Graph 1: Correlation between number of cups of coffee in a week and level of anxiety.

Which one of the following correlation coefficients best describes the data represented in Graph 1?

  • +0.85

  • -0.85

  • -0.30

  • +0.30

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14 marks

A student showed participants a film of a car accident. After watching the film, each participant was asked to write down what they had seen. The student was surprised to see that the descriptions of the accident were quite different.

The student’s psychology teacher suggested that the participants’ recall might be improved by using cognitive interview techniques.

Suggest two cognitive interview techniques that could be used to improve participants’ recall of the film.

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16 marks

Danielle was walking down the high street when she witnessed a crime. A young man attacked an elderly woman. After a struggle, the man ran away with the woman’s handbag. Danielle and another couple of witnesses stayed with the woman until the police arrived.

Explain how the police could use the cognitive interview to help Danielle’s recall of the event.

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26 marks

Evaluate the cognitive interview as a way of improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony.

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36 marks

Describe the cognitive interview.

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416 marks

Outline and evaluate research (theories and/or studies) into the effects of misleading information on eyewitness testimony.

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516 marks

Discuss research into the effects of anxiety on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony.

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