Key Question - Eyewitness Testimony

Question 1

Key question eyewitness testimony

key question + why issue

Answer 1

How reliable is an eyewitness testimony

eye Witness testimony is when somebody who was present at an event/crime describes the event/crime giving details on what happened and who/what somebody who did a crime looked like

However due to schemas rationalization and transformation this eye witness testemony may be invalid due to information being added or changed or the order being changed to fit into cultural expectations

For example the guy was wearing a mask when in fact they were wearing sunglasses

This can occur due to leading questions where somebody asks a question that leans towards the respondent making a particular answer
This would cause confabulation

to combat this
the delvin report (1974) was created that said that somone could not be prosecuted on the basis of one eye wittness testimony

Question 2

Key question eyewitness testimony unreliable

Reconstructive memory

Answer 2

Schema could be used for rationalisation and transformation to fill in the gaps of the memory on the situation, causing confabulation, for example with a schema of crinimals influenced by the media so the gaps could be filled in with them wearing an prison uniform and a mask
when in reality it was a jacket and sunglasses

leading questions could have caused this

e.g. in what hand did they carry the gun?

this rationalises the crinimal to of had a gun when they may have had a knife ect.
making the EWT invalid

Question 3

Key question eyewitness testimony unreliable

MSM Rehearsal/ displacment

Answer 3

MSM states rehearsal must be done to transport info from STM to LTM
so the description of the crinimal may be innacurate due to details being displaced before rehearsal as lots of distractions such as loud noises could be going on
causing parts of the description of the crinimal being displaced
before rehersal

therefore due to the rehearsal after displacment the EWT would be invalid and not accurate

Question 4

Key question eyewitness testimony unreliable

Tulving cues

Answer 4

Tulving sugests that an eposodic memory requires cues to be recalled, there may not be the correct cues (e.g. smells like gunpowder and sounds like shouting) in the court room to recall the info accuratly
and therefore the info wouldn’t be recalled
making EWT invalid as it wouldnt be recalled fully or at all
this half recall could lead to rationalisation thurther invalidating the EWT

Question 5

Key question eyewitness testimony improove reliability

MSM and flashball memory

Answer 5

If the event had a emotional connection the memory should go straight to LTM and no rehersal is required as it bypasses STM

if this happens their would be less gaps in the memory and less chance of key info being displaced due to a flood of sences from the enviroment

improoving the reliability of EWT by negating the effects of displacment, rehersal and possibly the need to rationalise the memory

Question 6

Key question eyewitness testimony improove reliability

police training / tulving

Answer 6

Police could be trained so that during an interview with eyewitnesses they recreate the smells and sounds of the crime scene to act as a cue to aid the recall of the eposodic memory of the event
thus inprooving the reliability of EWT

Question 7

Key question eyewitness testimony

support reconstructive memory (Allport + postman 1947)

Answer 7

Allport and postman 1947 support Reconstructive memory as they found that ppts filled in gaps in their memory with cultural expectations from their schema
as they switched the white man being aggrsssive with a razor the the black man, to the black man being aggressive

this then shows that cultural expectations are used to fill in the gaps in memorys to rationalise them (effort after meaning)

this can be applyed to the EWT as the description of the crinimal may be changed to fit cultural expectations such as wearing a mask when in reality they wore sunglasses

Question 8

Key question eyewitness testimony

order

Answer 8

state key question + why problem

recondtructive memory explenation + allport/postman support

msm + flashball improove reliability

tulving eposodic + how make better (police interviews with cues)

conclusion: is an issue with EWT reliability due to schemas displacment and recall
but can be combated by emotional connections and interviews with cues