Eyewitness Testimony Flashcards
What is Eyewitness Testimony?
An episodic memory for the crime event
- Factors impact the encoding and retrieval of the witnessed event
what did Myers say about memories?
(Year?)
Memories, unlike videotapes or photo copies, are personally constructed. And that is why two people can experience the same event and recall it differently
2000
What are Estimator Variables?
These variables are those that cannot be controlled by the CJS
- Leading & misleading post-event information
- Stress caused during the event
- Age on perceived accuracy
What are Schemas?
(Who, Year?)
Are cognitive structures that help individuals make sense if sensory information. They also impact memories in the form of stereotyping
Webber, 2020
What did Elizabeth Loftus say about memory?
Memory can not simply be replayed exactly how it occurred
What is Change Blindless?
(Who, Year?)
Failing to notice apparently obvious changes in a scene
(Simon & Levin, 1998)
6 Factors that impact the memory of events
- Cross-face identification
- Mood/stress
- Weapon focus effect
- Exposure duration
- Use of a disguise
- Misleading questions
What is Cross-race identification?
Tendency for people of one race to have difficulty recognising and processing faces and facial expressions of members of a race or ethnic group other than their own.
2 case studies on Cross-race identification?
(who, year?)
- 36% of wrongful convictions in USA that have been later overturned due to DNA evidence were originally prosecuted on the basis of cross-race eyewitness misidentification
(Scheck, Neufeld & Dwyer, 2003) - The mirror effect
(Meissner & Brigham, 2001)
what was discovered in Mood/Stress within Eyewitness Testimony’s?
(Who, Year?)
conducted a review of the effects that stress can have on the subsequent recall of a witness. They found a link between high stress levels and the ability of the witness to recall info.
Beffenbacher et al., 2004
What was said about weapons effects
(Who, Year?)
Participants who saw gun version tended to focus on the gun and were less likely to identify customer in experiment
(Loftus et al., 1987)
what did 2 theorists say that contradicted the idea of a weapons effect?
Who, Year?)
- In real eyewitness events, the effect is less reliably shown
(Valentine et al., 2008) - Witnesses had accurate memories despite presence of gun
(Yullie & Cutshall, 1986)
what was discovered about longer exposure duration?
(Who, Year?)
Demonstrated that recall was significantly better if witnesses saw faces for 45 seconds as opposed for 12 seconds. Correct identification were made in 90% of trials when the face was seen for 45 seconds and only 33% when seen for 12 seconds
Memon et al., 2003
What was discovered about Misleading Questions?
(who, Year?)
- Memory can be systematically distorted by the way questions are phrased
- Different schemas may be activated
Loftus & Palmer, 1974
what experiment was done to understand misleading questions?
Participants watched a multi-car accident and then answered specific questions
- Speed estimates depended on the word used in question
