eyewitness testimony and identification Flashcards
name ways psychology research has improved legal procedures through research.
- cognitive interview techniques.
- re-appreciation of EWT.
- EVO-FIT more reliable imaging.
- double blind line up procedures.
identify issues in applying psych to real world problems.
- ecological validity
- ethical issues
- effect size
give reasons why EWT is so error prone.
- poor view of events
- do not appreciate events significance at the time.
- changes in suspects appearance.
- effects of witness stress/arousal
- effects of post-event info
- relationship between witness accuracy and confidence
- effects of expectation
state the difference between system variables and estimator variables.
system variables are variables under control of the legal system, whereas estimator variables are not.
how can memory distortion occur?
- own expectations
- others accounts
describe heroes-dedson ‘law’ proposal.
if moderately stressed performance is good, too aroused and under aroused means poor performance.
why are experiments of stress not ecologically valid?
difficult to investigate stress experimentally as lab studies are highly controlled, participants know they are ‘fake’ so do not experience real stress.
give evidence for memory conformity.
- more likely to recall misinformation provided by co-witnesses than from leading questions.
- 86% of witnesses in a study said they discussed events with co-witnesses.
why does memory conformity occur?
- witnesses regard other accounts as more reliable
- witnesses try to present themselves favourably to other witnesses.
describe the US innocence project.
- 351 exonerations, over 75% involved EWT identification
e. g. Antonio beaver.
state two ways why id parades are unreliable.
- false positive (false id)
- false negative (failing to identify suspect as present).
which out of: target-present or target-absent resulted in more misidentification.
target-absent.
identify why eyewitness identification is unreliable.
- poor face recognition
- witness misattribution of feelings of familiarity.
- difficultly in ensuring line-ups are unbiased.
- weak relationship between witness confidence and accuracy.
what percentage of cashiers falsely accepted fraudulent cards, and what percentage falsely rejected legitimate cards?
- 50% fraud
- 10% legitmate
what is meant by the butcher of bus phenomenon.
recognise someone but fail to put a name to the face.
name the two parts of structural encoding (B+Y).
- expression
- recognition
when witnesses described the criminals appearance to 41 non-witnesses, how many non-witnesses were successful in identification?
25/41.
what type of lineup causes a prototype effect?
foils being selected on similarity to suspect.
identify the difference between simultaneous and sequential line-ups.
simultaneous lineups take a relative judgment strategy whereas sequential lineups take an absolute judgement strategy (reduce false-pos choices).
which type on lineup led to more correct identifications with target present?
simultaneous.
which type on lineup led to more correct rejections with target absent?
sequential.
is use of the hybrid procedure successful?
no - increases error more than it increases correct identification.
state the five US court criteria for evaluating EW id.
- opportunity (of witness view)
- attention (of witness)
- accuracy (witness description)
- certainty (of witness)
- time (between crime and id procedure).
what does the relationship between confidence and witness accuracy range between?
0.08 and 0.42.
