Eyewitness Testimony and Memory Biases

Question 1

eyewitness testimony

Answer 1

person who witnesses a crime & gets up on stand & recalls for the court all details of the event

• most persuasive evidence in court
• can lead to wrongful convictions

Question 2

faulty eyewitness testimony

Answer 2

implicated in at least 75% of DNA exoneration cues

Question 3

Ronald Cotton

Answer 3

identified as rapist by Jennifer Thompson

• sentenced to life in prison
• 10 years later, real rapist found based on DNA evidence

Question 4

Missinformation effect

Answer 4

erroneous info occurring after an event is remembered as having been part of the original event
* remembering something that wasn’t even there

Question 5

identify perpetrators

Answer 5

• eyewitness often makes mistakes
  Photo spread - picture of faces
• one photo of suspect and other are foils (member of lineup other than the suspect)

Question 6

mock witnesses

Answer 6

research subject who plays part of a witness in a study

* most stressed out and didn’t view details of perpetrator

Question 7

double-blind lineups

Answer 7

unbiased instructions for witnesses and conducting lineups in a sequential fashion

Question 8

schemata

Answer 8

memory template created through repeated exposure to a particular class of objects or events

Question 9

small memory errors

Answer 9

forgetting placement of keys… etc

Question 10

false memory

Answer 10

memory of an event that never actually occurred, implanted by experimental manipulation or other means
*experiments have persuaded subjects to falsely remember a variety of childhood experiences