Lesson 6.2.1

6.2.1 Eyewitness research methods, sampling and ethics Quiz: Pearson Edexcel Psychology, Unit 6

20 questions

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Lesson 6.2.1, Eyewitness research methods, sampling and ethics: 20 multiple choice questions for the Pearson Edexcel Psychology (9PS0), Unit 6: Criminological psychology, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. What is a laboratory experiment in eyewitness research?

    • A study of witnesses carried out only by observation in a courtroom, with no manipulation of any variable
    • A case study of one witness followed for many years, with detailed notes kept on their memory
    • A survey of attitudes towards the police, collected through questionnaires sent to households in an area
    • A controlled study in which the researcher manipulates a variable and measures its effect in a controlled setting

  2. What is a field experiment in eyewitness research?

    • A study in which no variables are manipulated, and the researcher only records what naturally happens
    • A study where the manipulation takes place in a natural or real-life setting
    • A study that uses only written questionnaires sent to witnesses by post, with no change to any condition
    • A study limited to interviews with lawyers about how they think witnesses behave in court

  3. What is a main advantage of laboratory experiments for studying eyewitness testimony?

    • High control over variables, which supports cause-and-effect conclusions
    • Guaranteed generalisability to all witnesses everywhere
    • Freedom from any need for consent
    • High ecological validity because they reproduce every real crime

  4. What is a main disadvantage of laboratory experiments for eyewitness research?

    • They are never able to measure memory accuracy, so their results cannot be used to judge any witness
    • They always involve dangerous physical stress, which means participants can be harmed in the study
    • Artificial settings may lower ecological validity, so findings may not transfer to real crimes
    • They cannot use any form of random allocation, so the groups are always unequal in size and make-up

  5. What is a main advantage of field experiments in eyewitness research?

    • A guarantee that participants will never be deceived
    • Results that are always identical to laboratory findings
    • Realistic conditions give high ecological validity
    • Complete control over every variable in the setting

  6. What is a main ethical issue in field experiments on eyewitness identification?

    • Participants never experience any stress, so the study cannot tell whether stress matters at all
    • Field experiments never involve other people, so they cannot tell us anything about social memory
    • Participants are always paid excessively, which may make them less honest about their memories
    • Participants may be deceived or distressed, so debriefing and harm minimisation are needed

  7. What is a case study in eyewitness research?

    • A review of all published studies on memory, pooled to estimate the overall size of an effect
    • A randomised experiment with one control group, in which witnesses are allocated by chance
    • A large survey of thousands of witnesses, collected from police records across several regions
    • An in-depth investigation of one individual or a small number of cases

  8. A researcher studies one witness's memory of a crime in great depth over several months. Which method is this?

    • A cross-sectional survey
    • A randomised controlled trial
    • A case study
    • A meta-analysis

  9. What is the main limitation of a case study of one eyewitness?

    • Case studies always contain numerical data only, so they cannot describe the witness's experience
    • Case studies remove the need for any ethical approval, since they only involve one person at a time
    • Case studies cannot describe any real person's memory, because they are based on imagined events
    • Findings may not generalise to other witnesses, so the results are limited in scope

  10. A researcher randomly assigns witnesses to a leading-question condition or a neutral-question condition. Which design is this?

    • A longitudinal cohort study
    • A content analysis of trial transcripts
    • A controlled experiment with random allocation
    • A case study of one witness

  11. Which research method would be most suitable to examine how a real police line-up affects identification over several cases?

    • A field study that records identifications in real police settings
    • A meta-analysis of crime statistics only, which pools the results of published police figures
    • A laboratory experiment with students only, who view a staged event in a controlled room
    • A single case study of one suspect, followed through the investigation by one researcher

  12. A laboratory study finds that weapon focus reduces recall of the face. Why might a field experiment be used to check this finding?

    • To avoid all ethical concerns in the study, because the setting is more natural for participants
    • To prove the laboratory result was entirely wrong, so that the earlier study can be discarded
    • To test whether the effect holds in a realistic setting with real stress and distraction
    • To remove the need for any control group, since the field setting already provides one

  13. Which research method would be most suitable to explore a witness's detailed experience of a traumatic event?

    • A case study or qualitative interview
    • A meta-analysis of published effect sizes
    • A cross-sectional survey of thousands of adults
    • A large-scale laboratory experiment with random assignment

  14. Which strength do laboratory experiments and field experiments share?

    • Both can test a manipulated variable and measure its effect on memory
    • Both avoid all ethical concerns, because the participants are always fully informed in advance
    • Both always have perfect ecological validity, since they both reflect real life in every respect
    • Both require no participants at all, since the results come from the researcher's own records

  15. Which evaluation of case studies in eyewitness research is most balanced?

    • They prove general rules about all witnesses, because a single detailed case shows what all people do
    • They are useless because they lack any detail, so they cannot inform any theory about memory
    • They are always more reliable than experiments, because the researcher knows the witness personally
    • They provide rich, detailed insight but cannot establish general rules because they involve few participants

  16. What does the term 'independent variable' mean in a field experiment on eyewitness testimony?

    • The number of participants in each group, which the researcher records to check the sample sizes
    • The time of day the experiment takes place, which the researcher notes to check for fatigue effects
    • The measure of memory accuracy recorded by the researcher, such as the number of correct details
    • The factor the researcher changes or manipulates, such as the type of question asked

  17. What does the term 'dependent variable' refer to in an eyewitness experiment?

    • The measured outcome, such as the number of correct details recalled
    • The room in which the experiment is conducted
    • The variable the researcher manipulates in each condition
    • The age of each participant in years

  18. A field experiment measures how many details a witness recalls after a leading question. Which is the dependent variable?

    • Type of question asked
    • Gender of the witness
    • Number of details recalled
    • Location of the study

  19. Which design choice most improves internal validity in an eyewitness experiment?

    • Using only participants who already know the answer, so that the scoring is simple and quick to do
    • Changing the procedure for each participant, so that each one has a different experience of the task
    • Allowing each participant to choose their own condition, so that they feel more involved in the study
    • Random allocation of participants to conditions with standardised procedures

  20. Why might a researcher choose to use a between-subjects design in an eyewitness experiment?

    • To ensure that all participants are the same person
    • To guarantee that all participants recall identical details
    • To remove the need for a control condition
    • To avoid practice or order effects that could arise if the same people took every condition

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