key question

Question 1

key question

Answer 1

Is eye-witness testimony too unreliable to trust?

Question 2

why is the issue important

Answer 2

Research has shown that EWT is unreliable and so learning about it would enable us to find ways to enhance trustworthiness

We care because we want to make them as accurate as possible in order to ensure justice by making correct convictions from correct accounts

The Devlin Report (1976) uncovered many cases where individuals were wrongfully convicted and lost years of their lives to prison

Question 3

describe how post-event information can impact eye-witness testimony

Answer 3

Witnesses are often interviewed over a period of time after the event in which they may be exposed to information they did not already have from other witnesses or the media

Information remembered can be confabulated/rationalised by our schemas of information learnt afterwards

The things they witnessed originally that don’t conform to an individuals schema can also be changed via confabulation/rationalisation

Information remembered can also be changed through leading questions that may suggest something being there when a witness does not remember it so they will assume they forgot and answer as if they remembered that something happening

Question 4

then evaluate post-event information using EACH - no answer

Answer 4

EACH

Question 5

then describe weapon focus and evaluate using EACH

Question 6

conclusion for the study

Answer 6

There is much research to suggest that factors can affect reliability of EWT however flashbulb memory can be used as an alternative explanation as it states that a memory with high levels of stress due to its significance will be remembered accurately and in a lot of detail therefore challenges the idea that memory of a crime will be unreliable.