reliability of eye witness testimony Flashcards
EWT is UNRELIABLE due to WEAPONS FOCUS
witness is so focused in the weapon at a crime scene that they struggle to take in important details relating to the perpetrator
LOFTUS ET AL- 2 conditions, bill vs gun, eye movements monitored as they watched the videos, bill condition more accurate at identifying perpetrator, gun condition long fixation on the weapon
educate potential future witnesses to mitigate its impact as research has shown that those taught about weapons focus can overcome it
EWT is RELIABLE due to WEAPONS FOCUS
presence of weapon can improve EWT
YUILLE AND CUTSHALL- real life gun shop robbery in canada, 4 months later researchers interviewed 13 witnesses who had viewed the robbery from different angles, found that witnesses recalled incident in great detail and there were very high levels of agreement between the EWT of different witnesses
high ecological validity
can still be reliable in cases involving weapons
EWT is NOT RELIABLE due to POST EVENT INFORMATION
EWT can be distorted and altered through post event discussion
GABBERT ET AL- sample of 60 students and 60 older adults, watched video of girl stealing money from wallet, either teste individually (control) or in pairs (co-witness), p’s in co-witness group were told they had watched the same video but they had seen different perspectives and only one actually saw the girl stealing. discussed together, questionnaire testing their memory of the event, found that 71% of p’s in co-witness group recalled info they hadn’t seen and 60% said the girl was guilty without seeing her commit a crime.
potential change in procedure so p’s can’t talk before giving their testimony
EWT is RELIABLE due to POST EVENT INFORMATION
EWT research is misleading as it tends to focus on details that are tricky for use to estimate or not central to the incident and thus more susceptible to corruption
LOFTUS- bright red purse stolen, later exposed to info with subtle errors or a more obvious one stating that the purse was brown, although p’s were wrong about peripheral items, 98% correctly recalled that the purse was red
central details less susceptible to distortion from post event information
EWT is NOT RELIABLE due to EMOTION
emotive situations can impact the accuracy of our memory
INVERTED U THEORY- cognitive performance increases as anxiety does until it reaches optimal level after which any increase in anxiety leads to rapid drop in cognitive performance
if not reliable learn not to rely on it too heavily in court
EWT is RELIABLE due to EMOTION
some research suggests that emotion will not impact recall of events
CHRISTIANSON AND HUBINETTE- 110 witnesses of 22 real life bank robberies, some were onlookers and customers, others were staff who had been directly threatened or subjected to violence, found that victims were still accurate in their recall of robbers clothing and behaviour and accuracy still evident 15 months later
opposes inverted u theory
however uncontrolled study so memories may not be entirely their own due to post event info
conclusion
overall there is strong evidence to suggest that EWT can be both reliable and unreliable. I believe that EWT can be reliable when used in court cases alongside other forms of evidence however sole reliance on EWT may not be reliable due to distorted memories or heightened emotions. if EWT is completely dismissed, wrongful convictions will likely increase which is noy only costly for the CJS but will have mass psychological impacts on the wrongfully convicted.
