Eyewitness Testimony

Question 1

perception and memory

Answer 1

3 parts:

1. encoding
2. storage
3. retrieval

Question 2

eyewitness testimony

Answer 2

eyewitness testimony refers to an account given by people of an event they have witnessed.

an eyewitness report, may sway a jury

Question 3

problems with eyewitness testimony

Answer 3

WITNESSES HAVE BIASED OPINIONS-PERSONAL BIAS
(if eyewitnesses are told a story about the event it may skew their memory and lead them to believe that it what they saw.)

AGE
(when you see a crime being committed, you see the person doing that crime, depending on how old you are, you misidentify how old the suspect is.)

TIME OF DAY
(if it is day or if it is night time it affects your perception. in the day you see clearly and at night not so much. weapons etc may not be as visible.)

EYEWITNESSES MAY LIE
(the majority of eyewitnesses change the story. people can be manipulated or cover up for someone that they love or know etc.)

BUNNY EFFECT
(the idea that when you are so focused on something you don't see other things at play that may be important.)

MEMORY FADES 
(overtime it becomes difficult to remember as well as when the event first occurs. things are clear in short term memory but things sometimes don't transition to our long term memory)

Question 4

strengths of eyewitness testimony

Answer 4

MEMORY
(an eyewitness tells a story from memory of events that happened.. this story serves as proof that an event occurred. testimony serves as evidence of a crime committed or as a means of determining who may be responsible for any given situation.)

RELIABLE the testimony is obtained straight after the event has occurred. this helps investigators understand what may have happened and what course of action they need to carry out and to then resolve the issue.)

SEQUENCE OF EVENTS CAN BE OBTAINED
(in order for something to be understsood we need to know hoe it happened. eyewitness testimony provides a sequence of events. a sequence of events is important to understand motive, when motive is understood then it becomes clear on how to fix the problem.)

Question 5

factors influencing EWT

Answer 5

———-THE EVENT———–TIME
the longer that you leave it after the event has occurred, the more your memory gets distorted

EMOTIONS
if the event was stressful and scarring they may not be able to give you the proper account, worst case not even be able to talk about it

MISLEADING QUESTIONS
may lead the eyewitness to answer a question in a way that they want them to (Loftus and Palmer)

RE CONSTRUCTIVE MEMORY
people store information in the way that makes the most sense to them. We make sense of information by trying to fit it into schemas, which are a way of organizing information.

Schemas are mental ‘units’ of knowledge that correspond to frequently encountered people, objects or situations. They allow us to make sense of what we encounter in order that we can predict what is going to happen and what we should do in any given situation. These schemas may, in part, be determined by social values and therefore prejudice.