Cognitive Key Questions Flashcards
What is ur cognitive key question
Is eyewitness testimony too unreliable to trust
AO1
185 excuted on death row 8.3% of excutions is wrong
Wrongfully convicted people receive 500,000 if spent less than 10 years in prison
Leads to damage to mental or physical health
9.1 years of an person’s life is spent in prison at average
Ronald cotton
Cotton was wrongly convucted for sexual assault of two women and two counts of Burglary
One witness testimony determined cottons conviction and there were many problems with info she was given after the crime
DNA evidence proves that he was not guilty and he was released 11.years later.
Weapon focus
When a weapon such as a gun is used in a crime, witnesses may be less accurate in identifying suspects as they pay more attention to the gun
For example gun pointed at them but not focused on what the criminal looks like
Arousal
The inverted u theory suggest that the high state of arousal caused by the presence of a weapon might make the witness focus on the weapon and remember less about other details
Reconstructive memory
Witnesses may be more accurate in their identification of there own race suspects than those of others of a different race
For example witness may find it difficult to identify differences in ppl that look nothing like them so they use there schema to fill the gaps in
What does the theories ultimately suggest
Unreliable testimony identifying the wrong suspects
Confabulation
Change
