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Forensic Psychology > Chapter 5 - Eyewitness Testimony > Flashcards

Chapter 5 - Eyewitness Testimony Flashcards

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1
Q

The Role of Memory

A

Eyewitness testimony relies on encoding, storing, and recalling information

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2
Q

The Stages of Memory

A

Encoding -> Storage -> Retrieval

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3
Q

Storing memories requires several steps including:

A

1.attention
2.encoding
3.sensory memory
4.short-term memory
5.long-term memory

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4
Q

How do we encode information

A

Through our external sensory events
(sight, smell, hearing)

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5
Q

Length of sensory memory

A

All information lost within a second or so

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6
Q

How does Sensory memory -> Short term memory

A

Selective attention

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7
Q

Length of Short term memory

A

Lost in about 12 to 30 secs without maintenance rehersal

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8
Q

How does short term memory turn into long-term memory

A

Consolidation (the action or process of making something stronger or more solid)

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9
Q

Long-term memory

A

Information is retained indefinitely, although some information is hard to retrieve.

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10
Q

What is remembering

A

Remembering is retrieving longterm memory to short term memory

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11
Q

Problem with The Role of Memory

A

Not all memories pass successfully through these stages and problems may occur at each stage

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12
Q

Many cases rely on

A

eyewitness testimony

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13
Q

Some wrongful convictions are due to

A

inaccurate witness testimony

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14
Q

Researchers have identified two types of factors/variables that can play important roles:

A

-Estimator
-System

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15
Q

Estimator variables

A

Present at the time of the crime and cannot be changed (e.g., age of witness)
(a weapon involved)

-level of intoxication
-alot of emotion
-lighting of area
- level of anxiety

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16
Q

System variables

A

Can be manipulated to increase (or decrease) eyewitness accuracy (e.g., lineup procedure)

-photos, videos

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17
Q

Younger and older adults (over age 60) produce

A

comparable correct identification rates

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18
Q

Older adults produce lower

A

correct rejection rates compared to younger adults

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19
Q

Race:
Witnesses are able to remember faces of their own race more accurately than faces of other races, known as the

A

cross-race effect

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20
Q

Cross-race effect may relate to

A

-Attitudes
-Interracial contact/exposure

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21
Q

Weapon focus:

A

The phenomenon of a witness’ attention being focused on the culprit’s weapon rather than on the culprit

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22
Q

Attempts to explain this phenomenon (weapon focus)

A

-Cue-Utilization hypothesis
-Unusualness hypothesis

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23
Q

Interviewing Witnesses effects

A

how a witness is interviewed can have an effect on memory

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24
Q

While interviewing witnesses; Witnesses should be allowed to

A

speak freely, be comfortable, calm, and imagine the crime scene (this doesn’t always happen)

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25
Q

How being interviewed effects a witnesses memory

A

-Interruptions
-Too many short-answer questions
-Relevant questions aren’t asked
-Rushing
-Leading questions…misinformation effect

26
Q

The Misinformation Effect

A

Occurs when a witness is provided with inaccurate information about an event after it is witnessed and incorporates the ‘misinformation’ in their later recall (Loftus, 1975)

27
Q

How does the misinformation occur

A

-Relevant questions aren’t asked
-Rushing
-Leading questions…misinformation effect
-Demand characteristics
-Same questions
-Mixing auditory and visual questions
-Multiple choice questions

28
Q

Types of Eyewitness Memory

A

-Recall memory
-Recognition memory

29
Q

Recall memory

A

Reporting details of a previously witnessed event/person

30
Q

Recognition memory

A

Determining whether what is currently being viewed/heard is the same as the previously witnessed item/person

31
Q

Line-ups

A

Can be with live people, photographs, or videos

Can be simultaneous (at the same time) or sequential (one at a time)

32
Q

Live Line-ups

A

Real people are shown to the witness
Suspect along with “foils” (4, 5, or 6) are viewed

33
Q

Simultaneous line up (like in movies)

A

-Foils should match description given by the witness
-Witness sees all at the same time

34
Q

Problems with Simultaneous

A

-Results in Relative Comparison (comparing those in the line-up with each other to choose who looks most like the perpetrator)
(memory not exactly reliable)
-Police sometimes give off cues
ex. “look @ suspect 2 again”
-Witnesses assume that the culprit is in the line-up ( feel the need to chose someone)
-False positives (up to 43%)

35
Q

Sequential

A

-One person is viewed at a time
‘Yes/No’, then on to the next if ‘No’ (to avoid )
-Results in Absolute Judgment (comparing individuals to witness’ memory)
-Lower false positives (about 17%)

36
Q

Photo Line-ups (Arrays)

A

-Simultaneous or sequential
-As good a live line-ups
-More flexibility is offered

37
Q

Video Line-ups

A

-Relatively new
-Supported by researchers
-All the benefits of photo line-ups plus…

38
Q

Show-ups

A

-Line-up of one person
-Yes or No?
-debate

39
Q

Walk-by

A

Witness is taken to a real, public location to identify the culprit

40
Q

Problems with Line-ups

A

-Studies show that there are some big problems with line-ups

-Researchers have made some major recommendations to improve the situation

41
Q

Recommendations for line-ups

A
  • The person who conducts the lineup should not be aware of who is the suspect ( cant give off cues)
  • Eyewitnesses should be informed the culprit may not be present in the lineup
  • The suspect should not stand out (suspect is tall; other foils are short)
  • A clear statement regarding a witness’ confidence (goes up after line up) should be taken at the time of the identification
  • Pay careful attention to the potential errors made by police
42
Q

what is foil in simultaneous line up

A

-people they know
-have been in the system

43
Q

What is the purpose of foils

A

To see if the witness can really recognize the purpertrator of the crime

44
Q

Absolute judgment

A

Witness compares each lineup member to his or her memory of the perpetrator to decide whether the lineup member is the perpetrator

45
Q

if the perpetrator was not included in the (. ) lineup, witnesses were more likely to …

A

correctly indicate that he or she was not present if they were shown a sequential lineup rather than a simultaneous lineup

46
Q

What is a biased line-up

A

A lineup that “suggests” whom the police suspect and thereby whom the witness should identify

47
Q

Name 3 bias in a lineup bias

A
  1. Foil bias: The suspect is the only lineup member who matches the description of the perpetrator.
  2. Clothing bias: The suspect is the only lineup member wearing clothing similar to that worn by the perpetrator
  3. Instruction bias: The police fail to mention to the witness that the perpetrator may not be present; rather, the police imply that the perpetrator is present and that the witness should pick him or her out
48
Q

T/F : Identification accuracy was higher with longer voice samples

A

T

49
Q

T/F: Whispering significantly increases identification accuracy

A

F

50
Q

T/F participants can identify voices better if laughter is involved

A

T

51
Q

If the targets face is visible when listening to voice recognition, is detection accuracy higher?

A

No

52
Q

Are several identifications factors better than one?
Pryke, Lindsay, Dysart, and Dupuis (2004)

A

The researchers found that exposing witnesses to more than one lineup, each consisting of a different aspect of the suspect, increased the ability to determine the reliability of an eyewitness’s identification of the suspect. Thus, the likelihood of the suspect’s guilt increased as the number of independent identifications of the suspect increased by any one witness.

53
Q

Overall, there appears to be a small ____ ______between accuracy and confidence.

A

Overall, there appears to be a small positive correlation between accuracy and confidence.

54
Q

Other-race effect

A

Phenomenon of witnesses remembering own- race faces with greater accuracy than faces from other races. Also known as the cross-race effect and the own-race bias

55
Q

Own-race bias

A

Phenomenon of witnesses remembering own-race faces with greater accuracy than faces from other races. Also known as the cross-race effect and the other-race effect

56
Q

3 most common explination for the cross-race effect

A
  1. attitudes
  2. Physiognomic Homogeneity
  3. Interracial Contact
57
Q

Cue-utilization hypothesis

A

Proposed by Easterbrook (1959) to explain why a witness may focus on the weapon rather than other details. The hypothesis suggests that when emotional arousal increases, attentional capacity decreases

58
Q

weaknesses in eyewitness research that should limit its usefulness to real-world application and experts testifying:

A
  1. Studies examining the same issue produce different results.
  2. Most of the studies use university students; real-life witnesses vary in age and
    other demographic variables.
  3. Most studies allow a witness to view the perpetrator for approximately six seconds; in reality, witnesses may view the perpetrator for five or more minutes.
59
Q

The three dependent variables in the eyewitness area are

A
  1. recall of the event
  2. recall of the perpetrator
  3. recognition of the perpetrator
60
Q

The cognitive interview is based on four memory-retrieval techniques to increase recall:

A
  1. reinstating the context
  2. reporting everything that comes to mind
  3. recall the event in a different order
  4. changing the perspective from which the information is recalled
61
Q

the enhanced cognitive interview includes five more techniques:

A
  1. building rap- port
  2. exhibiting supportive interviewer behaviour
  3. transferring the control of the interview to the witness
  4. asking for focused recall with open-ended questions
  5. asking the witness questions that match what the witness is recalling.
62
Q

Four rules were outlined to reduce the likelihood of false identification:

A

First, the person who conducts the lineup should not know who is the suspect.

Second, eyewitnesses should be told explicitly that the criminal may not be present in the lineup and, therefore, witnesses should not feel that they must make an identification.

Third, the suspect should not stand out in the lineup as being different from the foils based on the eyewitness’s previous description of the criminal or based on other factors that would draw extra attention to the suspect.

Fourth, a clear statement should be taken from the eyewitness at the time of the identification (and prior to any feedback) as to his or her confidence that the identified person is the actual criminal.

Forensic Psychology (5 decks)

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