Factors Affecting Eye-witness Testimony

Question 1

What is eye witness testimony?

Answer 1

A legal term which refers to an account given by a witness to a crime or other dramatic event.

Question 2

Explain what post-event information is and how it may influence the accuracy of EWT

Answer 2

-any information that arrives after an event that may affect or distort and Eyewitness’ memory of what happened
-human memory is reconstructive (Bartlett) and we know that memory does not record events in exact detail of how they were seen. Instead it fits memories within pre-existing frameworks and expectations and past knowledge to help make sense of the memory. These are called schemas
-therefore can make EWT unreliable as a persons ability to recall the events of the crime may be based on their schemas of the event instead.

Question 3

Explain what leading questions are and how they may influence the accuracy of EWT

Answer 3

-a type of question which leads a person to a specific answer, influencing their response
-it’s a type of post event information and can trigger schemas in the way that questions are phrased when the witness is asked about their memory of the event
-if these are used by police during interviewing or identification then it can distort an eyewitnesses own memory and lead them to changing their response, giving an unreliable source or information

Question 4

Explain the influence that anxiety has on EWT

Answer 4

-experiencing a dramatic event is likely to be stressful for a witness and this may affect their ability to recall events with such stress and anxiety
-if anxiety levels are low, EWT recall is likely to be poor as interest and attention is not payed to the details of the crime
-as anxiety levels increase, so does accuracy of EWT because interest and attention is higher. It reaches an optimal anxiety level, giving optimum EWT accuracy
-however, if anxiety levels go past this optimum and go too high, EWT accuracy will fall to a very low level as person is too emotional and fearful to pay attention to details

Question 5

Explain what the weapon focus effect is and how it influences EWT

Answer 5

-in violent crimes when the perpetrator is carrying a weapon, such as a gun or a knife, our brains natural tendency is to zoom in on the weapon as the main cause of stress.
-this makes the eyewitnesses recall for other important details, such as what they criminal looked like or what they were wearing easily forgotten or misremembered
-it is explained by tunnel theory phenomenon, as noticing a weapon produces a selective attention ignoring all other information