Deck 13: Memory and the Law

Question 1

The idea that eyewitness memory reports may reflect incomplete memory traces is __________.

A) memory change theory
B) response bias
D) fragmented memory cues

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Imagine that a witness is presented with misleading post-event information. Later, on a memory test, the person is asked to select among a set of options. The item that the witness is misled about is not among the options on this memory test. In this case, relative to control condition, performance in this mislead condition is likely to be __________.

A) better
B) the same
C) worse
D) more variable

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Which of the following is NOT a factor that can influence an eyewitness being misled by inaccurate post-event information?

A) the gender of the eyewitness
B) the authority of the misinformation source
C) schemas
D) source monitoring problems

Answer 3

A

Question 4

What effect can question wording have on eyewitness memories?

A) It can alter a memory completely.
B) memory reports distorted to be in line with the wording of the question
C) causes people to be more cautious and to scrutinize their memories more carefully
D) little to no effect

Question 5

Eyewitnesses are more likely to overestimate the speed of a car during a car crash when asked which question?

A) How fast were the cars going when they smashed?
B) How fast were the cars going when they collided?
C) How fast were the cars going when they hit?
D) How fast were the cars going when they bumped into each other?

Question 6

The testimony of eyewitnesses can be altered in some way by the wording of a statement or question __________.

A) very easily
B) never
C) rarely
D) only with some effort

Question 7

Eyewitness memory reports __________.

A) are robust
C) are context dependent
D) are best elicited under hypnosis

Question 8

According to the obscured memory theory of eyewitness memory, what is a consequence of presenting people with post-event misinformation?

A) The original memory trace is lost.
B) The original memory remains stronger than the misleading information.
C) People who remember the original information never succumb to the misinformation.
D) People who had previously forgotten now have something to remember.

Question 9

Which is NOT true about memory coexistence theory?

A) Misleading information obscures the original memory because it is more recent.
B) Misleading information replaces the original, which is permanently lost.
C) Memory is better when the original context is reinstated.
D) Memory is better if people are warned of misleading information before a test.

Question 10

The idea that, with misleading post-event information, the original memory trace is replaced and permanently lost is supported by __________.

A) input discrimination
B) chance performance on second guesses
C) response-biases
D) signal detection analyses

Question 11

According to a source monitoring explanation of eyewitness errors following misleading post-event information, __________.

A) people are only remembering the source information
B) people are not able to remember the source information
C) source information is exchanged among related memory traces
D) source information becomes a hypermnesic criterion

Question 12

How much can wording change an eyewitness's memory?

A) completely
B) significantly
C) minimally
D) not at all

Question 13

If a person absorbs false information after an event and later has trouble distinguishing it from true information, this is an example of __________.

A) misleading post-event information
B) arousal influences
C) verbal overshadowing
D) revelation effects

Question 14

What sort of information is an eyewitness more likely to remember from an accident or crime under high stress levels?

A) central information
B) schematically consistent information
C) peripheral information
D) schematically inconsistent information

Question 15

When does misleading information have the greatest influence on an eyewitness memory?

A) when it is given prior to the witnessed event
B) if it occurs during the event as it is being witnessed
C) if it is presented after the event has been witnessed
D) All of the above have similar effects.

Question 16

Eyewitness memory reports __________.

A) can be distorted by elaborative processing cues
B) usually end up in permastore
C) can be distorted by misleading information
D) are immune to coercion

Question 17

The weapon focus effect refers to the finding that __________.

A) memory for weapons is usually the focus of leading questions
B) attention is usually drawn towards a weapon
C) eyewitnesses usually later spend much of their time talking about the weapon
D) none of the above

Question 18

How easy it is to discriminate between what a witness accurately remembers and what information they have been misled about?

A) very easy
B) possible, but some effort is required
C) extremely difficult
D) only possible if there is independent evidence to address the issue

Question 19

What wording element in questions made participants viewing a video more likely to claim they witnessed something?

A) possessive pronoun
C) indefinite article
D) first person phrasing

Question 20

What sort of information is an eyewitness less likely to remember from an accident or crime under high stress levels?

A) central information
B) schematically consistent information
C) peripheral information
D) schematically inconsistent information

Question 21

What was the name the press gave to John Dean?

A) the human tape recorder
B) the un-American traitor
C) Mr. Mistakes
D) Dr. Memory

Question 22

John Dean's memory for what happened in the Nixon White House during the Watergate scandal was __________.

A) highly accurate
B) accurate in the gist
C) accurate in the details
D) highly inaccurate

Question 23

Which type of post-identification feedback is likely to have the least effect on eyewitness confidence?

A) "Okay. Thank you."
B) "Good job. You picked the guy."
C) "Hmmm . . . that's the guy that other people picked."
D) "Tell me again who you picked."

Question 24

What will be the effect of increasing an eyewitness's motivation when asking questions about an event?

A) increase overall confidence
B) decrease overall confidence
C) make the relationship between confidence and accuracy greater
D) make the relationship between confidence and accuracy worse

Question 25

If this is present at the scene of a crime, it can pull attention from other central details.

A) police
B) an escape route
C) a loved one
D) a weapon

Question 26

The correlation between eyewitness confidence and memory accuracy is about __________.

A) -.45
B) )30
C) )05
D) )75

Question 27

Which theory of memory and emotion suggests that all memory performance declines at high levels of arousal?

A) the Yerkes-Dodson Law
B) the Caldorn proposal
C) the Ebbinghaus curve
D) the Easterbrook hypothesis

Question 28

The influence of arousal on eyewitness memory is best described by __________.

A) the Yerkes-Dodson Law
B) the Caldorn proposal
C) the Ebbinghaus curve
D) the Easterbrook hypothesis

Question 29

What is the Yerkes-Dodson Law concerning memory and emotional arousal?

A) Memory is best at a low level of arousal.
B) Memory is best at high levels of arousal.
C) Memory does not change with arousal.
D) Memory is best at medium levels of arousal.

Question 30

Which of the following is related to arousal levels and eyewitness memory performance?

A) misleading information
B) weapon focus effect
C) line-up identification procedures
D) whether the witness is in the same context

Question 31

How was John Dean's memory for the verbatim conversations he heard in the Nixon White House during the Watergate scandal?

A) highly accurate
B) accurate in the gist
C) accurate in the details
D) highly inaccurate

Question 32

Which theory of memory and emotion suggests that most memory performance declines at high levels of arousal, except for central information?

A) the Yerkes-Dodson Law
B) the Caldorn proposal
C) the Ebbinghaus curve
D) the Easterbrook hypothesis

Question 33

High levels of arousal are associated with __________.

A) increased peripheral memory accuracy
B) decreased peripheral memory
C) decreased central memory accuracy
D) increased overall accuracy

Question 34

The weapon focus effect is often reflected in __________.

A) better memory for a perpetrator's face
B) worse memory for a perpetrator's face
C) exclusive memory for a weapon
D) a large number of memory intrusions about a weapon

Question 35

Eyewitnesses to a crime may have poorer memory for the perpetrator's face under what conditions?

A) moderate arousal levels
B) sequential line-up
C) the presence of a weapon
D) returning to the scene of the crime

Question 36

What will repeated requests to answer a question do to eyewitness confidence?

A) increase it
B) decrease it
C) no effect
D) It depends on how many times a witness is asked a question.

Question 37

The Yerkes-Dodson Law states that memory is best under what arousal levels?

A) low
B) high
C) moderate
D) low to moderate

Question 38

Which of the following will NOT inappropriately inflate eyewitness confidence?

A) repeated questioning
B) reporting other witnesses' responses
C) reinforcing feedback
D) lack of motivation on the part of the witness

Question 39

What theory of memory performance and emotion is most in line with the weapon focus effect?

A) the Yerkes-Dodson Law
B) the Caldorn proposal
C) the Ebbinghaus curve
D) the Easterbrook hypothesis

Question 40

When a person becomes highly aroused while witnessing some event like an accident or a crime, memory is likely to be __________.

A) better for central details and worse for peripheral details
B) worse for central details and better for peripheral details
C) better for both central and peripheral details
D) worse for both central and peripheral details

Question 41

Which of the following is NOT the best way to conduct a line-up?

A) Tell the witness the perpetrator might not be present.
B) Have a simultaneous line-up.
C) Have similar-looking people in the line-up.
D) Do not limit the amount of time a witness has to make the identification.

Question 42

Post-identification feedback can influence __________.

A) accuracy of reported information
B) strength of memory trace
C) eyewitness confidence
D) jury bias

Question 43

What is it called when an eyewitness mistakenly identifies an innocent bystander as the perpetrator?

A) misleading post-event information
B) memory bias shift
C) inappropriate overconfidence
D) unconscious transference

Question 44

What is a good way to prevent problems for witnesses when picking a bad guy out of a lineup?

A) Use fillers who resemble the suspect.
B) Tell the witness that the perpetrator is present.
C) Simultaneously present all people in the lineup.
D) Put additional pressure on the witness to motivate him or her to chose the right suspect.

Question 45

The decisions of jurors tend to be more influenced by what memory phenomenon?

A) primacy effect
B) recency effect
C) hypermnesia
D) reminiscence
Short Answers

Question 46

Eyewitness identification is more accurate under what line-up presentation conditions?

A) simultaneous
B) either simultaneous or sequential
C) sequential
D) neither simultaneous nor sequential

Question 47

Allowing witnesses to finish their accounts during the cognitive interview (i.e., not interrupting them) allows for what?

A) different retrieval routes
B) set retrieval plan
C) response bias
D) more weakly encoded memories to emerge

Question 48

A principle that some witnesses might implicitly use when making an identification from a line-up is __________.

A) absolute identification
B) conformity heuristic
C) relative judgment
D) availability

Question 49

What is one way to ameliorate an eyewitness's memory bias during a line-up?

A) Explicitly add "not there" to the list of acceptable responses.
B) Have fillers be very different from the perpetrator's description.
C) Have fillers be as physically homogenous and undistracting as possible.
D) This cannot be done.

Question 50

What is the wording effect in eyewitness memory?

Question 51

During a jury trial, when jurors are told to disregard information that was heard because it referred to a different case, jurors are likely to __________.

A) still be influenced by it, both consciously and unconsciously
B) still be influenced by it, but only unconsciously
C) successfully disregard it
D) become confused and create false memories

Question 52

What is one thing that can be done to use contextual cues to help an eyewitness remember accurately, with less worry of distorting memory?

A) Have the witness talk to other witnesses.
B) Bring the witness back to the scene of the event.
C) Put the witness through a relaxation procedure.
D) Remind the witness about the event by telling a story about the event.

Question 53

Which of the following is NOT a component of the cognitive interview for questioning witnesses?

A) Present the witness with an overview of the event.
B) Reinstate the context in some way.
C) Don't interrupt the witness.
D) Encourage the witness to take multiple perspectives.

Question 54

What is NOT something that influences memory confidence?

A) telling the witness what other people reported
B) having an accurate memory for the event
C) providing the witness with feedback about their testimony
D) how many times the question is asked

Question 55

Which of the following is a good suggestion for improving the memory reports of a witness?

A) Encourage witnesses to take a single perspective.
B) Ask open-ended questions.
C) Have witnesses discuss the event together to reduce idiosyncratic responses.
D) Conduct the interview at a quick pace.

Question 56

What sort of memory bias can occur when mug shots are used to identify a perpetrator?

A) If the witness picks an incorrect person initially, their memory for the actual perpetrator will be worse later.
B) People will tend to remember the perpetrator's face as it looked in the mug shot, not as it looked during the event.
C) People grow fatigued looking at large numbers of mug shots, and their memory worsens.
D) Looking at mug shots lowers the confidence people have in their memories.

Question 57

Which theory of eyewitness memory suggests that the effect of misleading post-event information is the result in a loss of information in the memory trace?

Question 58

Juries are more likely to be inappropriately influenced by information if __________.

A) they are told to forget it because the judge said so
B) they are told to forget it because it was inappropriately revealed
C) they are told to forget it because it refers to a different person
D) they are told to remember it even if it is a trivial detail

Question 59

What are the consequences of misleading post-event information on eyewitness memory?

Question 60

Which of the following would NOT increase eyewitness confidence after an identification?

A) Other witnesses confirm the identification.
B) The witness is given positive feedback after the identification.
C) The question is asked more often.
D) The witness is told to keep trying hard to remember.

Question 61

How can John Dean's memory for the Watergate cover-up be characterized in terms of details and gist?

Question 62

What is the best way to conduct a line-up, according to the principles of memory?

Question 63

What are two of the components of the cognitive interview?

Question 64

What is one way that a juror's decision can be affected by how memory operates?

Question 65

What is the best way to describe the relationship between memory accuracy and memory confidence?

Question 66

What theory of memory and emotion best describes eyewitness memory at high levels of arousal?