Maass & Kohnken Describe Flashcards Preview

Criminological Psychology > Maass & Kohnken Describe > Flashcards

Flashcards in Maass & Kohnken Describe Deck (17)
Loading flashcards...
1
Q

Date

A

1989

2
Q

Aim

A

The aim of the study was to look at the effectiveness of witnesses when they are exposed to an event whereby they are distracted by the presence of a syringe. This was to provide support for previous research into the effects of weapon focus.

3
Q

What type of study/experiment is this?

A

This study is an example of a field experiment because an independent variable was manipulated in the participants’ natural setting (students at a university).

4
Q

What was the sample?

A

86 American university students.

5
Q

What were the participants told they were participating in?

A

They were told that they were participating in an experiment investigating the relation between sport-related physical activity and psychological well-being.

6
Q

How did the experiment start?

A

After completion of two questionnaires, the participant was led into the experimental room, which was generously equipped with physiological measurement devices.

7
Q

Where were the participants positioned and what were they made to wear?

A

The participant was seated in a reclining chair and asked to wear a chest belt

8
Q

What were the participants told the chest belt did and what did it really do?

A

The participants were told that the chest belt served to monitor the subject’s breathing activity. In reality, this device assured that the participant would remain seated during the waiting periods; more importantly, this guaranteed that the distance between participant and target would be identical in all experimental sessions.

9
Q

What did the experimenter do?

A

Left the room and retured a couple of times

10
Q

What happened after one minute?

A

fter 1 min, a different female confederate (the target) entered the room wearing an unbuttoned white lab coat over the normal clothing, a stethoscope clearly visible in one pocket.

11
Q

What did the target do?

A

The participants were approached by the target holding a pen or a syringe (the independent variable); she either told them or did not tell them that she would give them an injection.

12
Q

What was the independent variable?

A

Whether the target was holding a pen or a syringe.

13
Q

What were the participants asked after the experiment?

A

The participants were then asked how much detail they remembered about the woman and if they could identify her in a line-up (the dependent variable).

14
Q

What was the dependent variable?

A

How much they remember about the woman and if they could identify her from the lineup

15
Q

RESULTS. What fraction of participants falsely indicated the target in the line up?

A

1/ Two-thirds of all participants who had been confronted with the syringe falsely indicated one of the line-up members as the target.

3/ Participants remembered less facial detail the greater their fear of injections.

16
Q

RESULTS: What two correlations were identified?

A

Participants who were exposed to the syringe rather than the pen performed worse in their identification and participants remembered less facial detail the greater their fear of injections.

17
Q

What did they conclude?

A

The CONCLUSION was that participants exposed to the syringe had focused upon this rather than the person holding it therefore supporting the idea of weapon focus.