Credability of Eyewitness Testimony

Credability of Eyewitness Testimony

Is Eyewitness testimony reliable and accurate? Include case studies to

back this up.

EWT refers to evidence supplied by people who witness a specific

event or crime, relying on their own memory. Statements often include

descriptions given in a criminal trial and subsequent identification

by individuals who were present at the crime scene. EWT is likely to

dependent on reconstructive memory(Bartlett,1932) which describes how

memory is more than a passive recall. It is the active process of

building up memory using fragments to fill gaps of an event in memory

plus the expectations and assumptions (schema) of that event. This

form of EWT is not 100% accurate as it is relying on the schema to

fill in these gaps and varies from person to person. Reconstruction is

not the only form of distortion in EWT as language; leading questions

and post-event information may even distort reconstruction, further

leading to memory to use and confabulation.

Loftus and Palmer found that changing the wording of one critical

question ("About how fast were the cars going when they

(hit/smashed/collided/ bumped/contacted-the five conditions) each

other?") posed to eyewitnesses of a car accident had a significant

effect on the estimated speed of the vehicles. Loftus and Palmer found

that estimated speed was influenced by the verb used. The verb implied

information about the speed, which systematically affected the

participants' memory of the accident. Those who were asked the

question where the verb used was "smashed" thought the cars were going

faster than those who were asked the question with "hit" as the verb....

... middle of paper ...

...bt as to how relevant the research is to real-life EWT, as the

research tends to focus on insignificant details that can be easily

distorted whereas key details are less likely to be as easily

distorted.

In conclusion, it is found that research findings can be applied to

cognitive interviews and so the psychological research can improve the

reliability of EWT. However, we can only train police to some extent

because Bartlett found, we are constantly reconstructing our memory

over successive recalls through schemas and filling the gaps; and so

EWT can never be 100% accurate, even when other features such as

repression which can limit the reliability.

Bibliography

Ÿ Letts psychology for AS LEVEL study guide.

Ÿ Psychology in Focus by David Rice, Mike Haralambos, Steve James,

Nigel Foreman and Wendy Askam.