eyewitness testimony Flashcards

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1
Q

what are some factors that make eyewitness testimonies unreliable?

A
  • anxiety/stress
  • presence of a weapon
  • suggestive questions
  • misinformation effect
  • race/age
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2
Q

eyewitness testimony can be categorized into either _ or _ memory (explain)

A
  • recall (reporting details of a previously witnessed event or person
  • recognitions (determining whether a previously seen item or person is the same as what is currently being viewed
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3
Q

what are the 3 dependent variables in eyewitness studies?

A
  • recall of the crime
  • recall of the culprit
  • recognitions of the culprit
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4
Q

a witness’ recall of the crime/culprit can be examined for what three aspects?

A
  • the amount of info reported
  • the type of info reported
  • the accuracy of info reported
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5
Q

what are the techniques/behavior of police during eyewitness interviews

A
  • frequent interruptions of witnesses during open-ended recall
  • use of very short, specific questions
  • questions in an order that was inconsistent with the info the witness was providing at the time
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6
Q

what is witness contamination/memory conformity?

A
  • witnesses can be contaminated by information they may become aware of from other witnesses
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7
Q

what is the misinformation effect?

A
  • phenomenon where a witness who is presented with inaccurate information after an event will incorporate that misinformation in a subsequent recall task
  • occurs most often in the presence of leading/suggestive questions
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8
Q

name the three explanations (hypotheses) of the misinformation effect

A
  • misinformation acceptance hypothesis
  • source misattribution hypothesis
  • memory impairment hypothesis
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9
Q

explain the misinformation acceptance hypothesis

A
  • incorrect info is provided bc the witness guessed what the officer wants the response to be
  • knows the right answer but says mistake to please the officer
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10
Q

explain the source misattribution effect

A
  • where the witness has two memories, the original one and the misinformation
  • witness cannot rmb where each memory originated or the source of each (so don’t know what is true n wht is false)
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11
Q

explain the memory impairment hypothesis

A

the original memory no longer exists as it is replaced with the new, incorrect, information

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12
Q

name the two procedures that can be used when it is difficult for the eyewitness to recall what happened

A
  • hypnosis
  • cognitive interview
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13
Q

what are some downfalls of the hypnosis technique

A
  • ppl under hypnosis will provide more details, but those details are just as likely to be accurate or inaccurate, and they are equally confident in their answers
  • not admissible in court
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14
Q

the cognitive interview is developed based on which two principles

A
  • memory storage
  • retrieval
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15
Q

what is false memory syndrome?

A

term to describe client’s false beliefs that they were sexually abused as children, having no other memories of this abuse until they enter therapy to deal with some other problems such as depression or substance abuse

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16
Q

what are the five criteria to consider when trying to determine the veracity of a recovered memory?

A
  • age of the complainant at the time of the alleged abuse
  • techniques used to recover memory
  • similarity of reports across interview sessions
  • motivation for recall
  • time elapsed since the alleged abuse
17
Q

what are the most common descriptors for recall of the culprit?

A

sex and height

18
Q

what are the descriptors that are difficult to report (less accuracy)?

A
  • weight
  • eye colour
  • type of footwear
19
Q

what tool might be helpful for helping eyewitness recall a culprit

A
  • using a standard person to compare the culprit to
  • ex: was the culprit taller or shorter than this person?
20
Q

name the ways in which a witness’s recognition memory can be tested

A
  • video surveillance records
  • voice identification
  • live lineups or photo array
21
Q

what are distractors in a lineup?

A

members that are innocent for the crime in question

22
Q

explain the two strategies used for distractors in a lineup

A
  • similarity to suspect strategy: matches lineup members to the suspect’s appearance, esp if there’s a standout carac
  • match to description strategy: distractors are matched only on the items that the witness provided in their description
23
Q

why are photo arrays preferable to live lineups?

A
  • less time consuming to put tgt
  • portable
  • no right to counsel for the suspect
  • photo are static (no need to worry abt suspect behaviour)
  • reduced anxiety for eyewitness
24
Q

what are the two lineup presentation format and the type of judgement they entail (explain)

A
  • simultaneous lineup: presenting all members at one time to the witness
    • relative judgment: witness compares
      lineup members to one another and the
      person who looks most like perpetrator is
      identified
  • sequential lineup: presenting members one at a time, no repeats
    • absolute judgment: the witness must make
      a decision as to whether the lineup member
      is the perpetrator before seeing the next
      member
25
Q

are several identifications better than one?

A
  • in the laboratory, yes but not realistic irl
26
Q

what is the cross-race effect?

A

ppl rmb faces of their own race with greater accuracy than they rmb faces of other races

27
Q

what are the two hypotheses that explain weapon focus? explain

A
  • cue-utilization hypothesis: when emotional arousal increases, attentional capacity decreases (central details like weapon is encoded and not peripheral things like face of criminal)
  • unusualness hypothesis: weapons are unusual and this attracts a witness’s attention