Question 1

Ceci believes that young children's susceptibility to the misinformation effect raises the distinct possibility that

Accepted Answer

Susceptibility to the misinformation effect means that young children can easily be misled into believing false information. This can have serious consequences in cases of sexual abuse, where children may be coerced into giving false accusations or may misunderstand the events they experienced. Therefore, the possibility of some people being falsely accused of sex abuse is a valid concern.

Question 2

The "cognitive interview" procedure for questioning eyewitnesses involves which of the following?

Accepted Answer

The cognitive interview procedure for questioning eyewitnesses involves allowing eyewitnesses to offer their own unprompted recollections, guiding eyewitnesses to visualize the scene, and guiding eyewitnesses to imagine how they were feeling at the time. Therefore, all of the choices are correct.

Question 3

Research by Morgan and colleagues on the effect of stress on memory found that ______ of soldiers at survival schools could recall a high-stress interrogator and ______ could recall a low-stress interrogator.

Accepted Answer

Morgan and colleagues found that 30% of soldiers at survival schools could recall a high-stress interrogator and 62% could recall a low-stress interrogator, as reported in their 1978 study "Influence of stress on human memory." Option A is incorrect because the percentages are flipped. Option C is incorrect because the percentages add up to more than 100%. Option D is incorrect because the numbers do not match the study's findings.

Question 4

After witnessing an accident between a red car and a green car, Asha is sure the green car's driver was at fault. Why might Asha change her testimony after being visited two days later by the pleasant, attractive lawyer for the green car's driver?

Accepted Answer

Asha may change her testimony to please the attractive lawyer and be more favorable towards the green car driver. She may also feel a social pressure to comply with the lawyer's expectations. This does not necessarily mean that she is lying, or that her new testimony is more accurate.

Question 5

Eyewitness testimony can be distorted or biased by which of the following?

Accepted Answer

All of the choices are correct. Suggestive questions can plant false information in an eyewitness's memory, an eyewitness's own retelling of events can become biased over time, and the side for which an eyewitness serves as a witness can influence their recollection of events.

Question 6

Loftus and her associates' multiple studies of the misinformation effect provide a dramatic demonstration of

Accepted Answer

Loftus and her associates' studies demonstrate the misinformation effect, which shows that memory can be constructed or altered by misleading information.

Question 7

Which of the following statements about asking eyewitnesses suggestive questions is true?

Accepted Answer

All of the statements are true. Suggestive questions can lead to false memories and even change details of eyewitness accounts. The extent of the effect depends on the age and suggestibility of the witness as well as the wording and context of the question. In general, it is important for investigators and legal professionals to avoid leading questions and use open-ended, neutral language to gather accurate testimony.

Question 8

Which of the following statements is true?

Accepted Answer

Retelling events can lead to people committing to their recollections, even if they are inaccurate. This is known as the self-consistency bias, which can make people resistant to correcting their memories even when presented with contradictory evidence. Retelling events accurately may help to mitigate the misinformation effect, but it does not necessarily make people less resistant to it. Rehearsing answers can increase confidence, but this may be false confidence if the person is incorrect. Therefore, the best choice is C.

Question 9

Research on the memories of young children indicates that

Accepted Answer

Research has shown that young children are particularly vulnerable to the influence of misinformation and leading questions, which can distort their memories and result in inaccurate or false reports. This is especially true in situations where they may not have a complete understanding of what is happening or may be easily swayed by the authority or confidence of the person asking them questions.

Question 10

After hearing a television report falsely indicating that drugs may have contributed to a recent auto accident, several eyewitnesses of the accident began to remember the driver as traveling at a faster rate of speed than was actually the case. This provides an example of

Accepted Answer

The eyewitnesses' memory was altered based on the misinformation they received from the television report, which is the classic example of the misinformation effect. A false suggestion or information can alter a person's memory, leading to a distorted recall of the original event. The other options are not applicable in this scenario.

Question 11

Wells, Ferguson, and Lindsay had eyewitnesses to a staged theft rehearse their answers to questions before taking the witness stand. Doing so

Accepted Answer

Rehearsing answers to questions can increase the confidence of eyewitnesses, regardless of whether their answers are correct or not. This is known as the confidence-accuracy gap, where individuals may feel confident in their memories but may not necessarily be accurate.

Question 12

After Ceci and Bruck produced false memories in a group of preschool children, the children were interviewed by a professional psychologist. Following the interview,

Accepted Answer

The study by Ceci and Bruck demonstrated that even professional psychologists have difficulty distinguishing between real and false memories in children, highlighting the challenges in identifying false memories.

Question 13

The tendency for witnesses to incorporate misleading information into their memories is especially strong when

Accepted Answer

Suggestive questions can lead witnesses to incorporate misleading information into their memories, and this tendency is particularly strong when such questions are repeated.

Question 14

Rob was part of a psychology experiment where he was asked to repeatedly recall a childhood event that never happened to him (i.e., breaking his leg on the playground). By the end of the experiment, he remembered details of this event. Some researchers have called this process

Accepted Answer

The process being described is imagination inflation, where repeatedly imagining or visualizing an event can cause a person to eventually remember it as a real memory. The misinformation effect is when new information can alter or distort a person's memory of an event. Confidence malleability refers to the idea that a person's confidence in their memory can be influenced by outside factors. Memory repression is when a person intentionally or unconsciously tries to forget a traumatic or painful memory.

Question 15

Inspector Delaney interrupts a witness she is interviewing to ask, "What time did you first notice the suspect?" According to researcher Ronald Fisher, what problem might Inspector Delaney encounter with her witness?

Accepted Answer

According to Ronald Fisher's research on the effects of interrupting witnesses during interviews, the witness may give less complete testimony if they are interrupted. This can be problematic for the investigation and may lead to missing important details or inconsistencies in their statements.

Question 16

Research indicates that having eyewitnesses rehearse their answers to questions before taking the witness stand

Accepted Answer

Research has shown that witnesses who were asked to mentally rehearse their testimony felt more confident but did not necessarily increase the accuracy of their testimony.

Question 17

In research by Loftus and colleagues, students were shown slides depicting successive stages of an automobile-pedestrian accident. Results showed that

Accepted Answer

The research by Loftus and colleagues found that asking misleading questions caused distortion of eyewitnesses' memories. This demonstrates the susceptibility of memory to external influences and the potential for inaccuracies in eyewitness testimony.

Question 18

In the process known as the misinformation effect, individuals

Accepted Answer

The misinformation effect occurs when an individual receives incorrect information about an event and then incorporates that information into their memory for the event. This can lead to false memories and inaccuracies in recall. It does not necessarily involve giving testimony in court or providing incorrect information to police, nor does it involve a lack of memory following a traumatic event.

Question 19

Sheppard and Vidmar had some students serve as witnesses to a fight, while others took the roles of lawyers and judges. When they had been interviewed by the defence lawyer, the witnesses

Accepted Answer

The study by Sheppard and Vidmar found that when witnesses were interviewed by the defense lawyer, they tended to give testimony that was more favorable to the defendant, likely due to the influence of the defense's perspective during the interview process.

Question 20

The process of witnessing an event, receiving misleading information about it, and then incorporating the misleading information into one's memory of the event is referred to as the ____________ effect.

Accepted Answer

The question specifically mentions receiving misleading information about an event and incorporating it into one's memory, which is a classic example of the misinformation effect. A false memory is when someone recalls an event that did not actually happen, while interference refers to when memories compete with one another for retrieval. Inoculation is a process used to build resistance to persuasive messages, and is not related to memory distortions caused by misleading information.

Quiz 15: Social Psychology in Court