Eye-Witness Testimony

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Eye-Witness Testimony

Until now we have focused upon theoretical psychology that employ

methods that are removed from real life. Neisser was one psychologist

who criticized his fellow psychologists for concentrating too much on

theoretical concepts and ignoring the practical issues involved about

memory. It is memory from real life experiences that psychologists

must concentrate on and one aspect of this is known as the eyewitness

testimony.

Reliability of Eyewitness Testimony

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It is without doubt that eyewitnesses to a crime are one of the most

important people to the police when trying to get a conviction but we

must remember that sometimes they can be un-reliable. Sometimes we

cannot recall the exact events that surround the incident or sometimes

it can be distorted so that details are lost or inaccurate ones added.

In real life it is not necessary to precisely recall specific things

in order to use them in every day life e.g. we do not need to remember

exactly what a 10p piece looks like in order to use it to buy a sweet.

In other words there are many areas in everyday memory that we do not

need to recall exactly.

Reconstructive Memory

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Reconstructive memory basically means what affect the event had on us

rather than the precise details surrounding it. However we must

remember that reminiscing on particular events can lead to them being

distorted through our prior knowledge and expectations and so care

must be taken in dealing with reconstructive memory.

Bartlett (1932) carried out pioneering research in this field and it

was his findings t...

... middle of paper ...

...tion is viewed as un-reliable partly because of

the surprise element involved when witnessing a crime and partly

because the individuals are removed from the context in which they

originally witnessed the crime. It seems that in most crimes the face

of the perpetrator is not the focus of attention. In order to increase

the accuracy in which we recall things we need greater exposure to

them from different angles because our memory for familiar faces has a

more 3-D quality about it.

Eyewitness Summary

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Although it is possible under certain circumstances that people can

recall certain events vividly and in accurate detail eyewitness

accounts can be unreliable. It is therefore important for

psychologists to investigate the reason why inaccuracies arise and to

suggest ways they may improve.

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