...Retrospective Eyewitness Reports as Functions of Feedback and Delay’ by Gary L. Wells, Elizabeth A. Olson, and Steve D. Charman. Iowa State University Journal of Experimental Psychology This article was mainly about eye witnesses and the many errors they make in recalling a situation or describing a culprit whether they are asked immediately or after a period of time. In this study, witnesses viewed a crime video and attempted to identify the culprit from a group line-up that did not actually have the culprit present. 253 mistaken-identification eyewitnesses were randomly given confirming, disconfirming, or no feedback regarding their description of the culprit or the culprit’s identification. The feedback process was either immediate or delayed for 48 hours, and measures were also immediate or delayed for 48 hours. It was shown that those who were given confirming feedback gave more distorted information. They had increased confidence in remembering what had happened, were able to make out facial details and their length of time to identify the culprit changed. There was also no difference in their statements when they were asked immediately or after 48 hours. Those who received disconfirming feedback were not so confident and took longer time to identify the culprit. The writers argue that the focus on identification itself, especially in court cases, does not factor in the influence that postidentification suggestions have on the testimony of the eyewitness that...
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...When you put these two words together, you get witness misidentification which has been referred to as the single greatest cause of wrongful convictions nationwide, with nearly 75% of the convictions overturned through DNA testing. There have been 260 exonerations across the country based on forensic DNA testing with 3 out of 4 involving cases of eyewitness misidentification. (Innocence Project 1999) In 1907 or 1908, Hugo Munsterberg published “On the Witness Stand”; he questioned the reliability of eyewitness identification. As recent as 30 or 40 years ago, the Supreme Court acknowledged that eyewitness identification is problematic and can lead to wrongful convictions. The Supreme Court instructed lower courts to determine the validity of eyewitness testimony based on irrelevant factors, like the certainty of the witness, the certainty you express in court during the trial has nothing to do with how certain you feel two days after the event when you pick a photograph out of a set or pick the suspect out of a lineup. It has been said that you become more certain over time. (The Confidential Resource September 15, 2010) An eyewitness viewing a simultaneous lineup tends to make a judgment about which individual in the lineup looks most like the perpetrator relative to the other members of the lineup. This is particularly problematic when a lineup only contains innocent people. Research has shown that the effective use of fillers when composing a lineup can help combat the tendency...
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...Introduction Eyewitness evidence can be highly persuasive to jurors. However, eyewitness testimony can be mistaken. Eyewitness’ memory of the event may change drastically between the time one first witness an event and the time one recount it to someone else (Loftus, 1975). At the time of exposure and shortly thereafter, observers have much more information than they can later report and that the availability of this information declines rapidly (Sperling, 1960). Furthermore, Clifford and Scott (1978) reported that the emotionality surrounding an incident can affect the testimony of both the victim and witnesses, and both accuracy and completeness. The goal of the present research is to examine the effect of eyewitness testimony on juries....
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...Critically discuss the psychological evidence that helps to explain the use of evidence given in court by children under the age of 11, (usually described as ‘child witnesses’) In the past 20 years the number of psychological studies on child witnesses and the competency of them being interviewed as well as the evidence being given by them has grown from very few quality studies to several thousand. Issues such as suggestibility, the effects of individual differences and the effects of long delays on their recall have been brought up and discussed in these studies. (Memon, Vrij & Bull, 2006) Traditionally, most Criminal Justice Systems have been reluctant to accept the testimony of young children, believing that they make less reliable witnesses than adults do. Although in recent years the balance has shifted and the evidence of children is now much more likely to be accepted. (Ainsworth, 1998) All witnesses defined as a child at the date of the trial, and irrespective of the nature of the offence, are automatically classified as vulnerable and this eligible for a range of protective special measures to enable them to give a testimony in court. There special measures include in-court screens, live TV link, removal of wigs and gowns and provision of any necessary aids to communication. (Raitt, 2007) The issue of children’s competency to testify in court has changed from the presumption that no minor is competent to the belief that all children are competent...
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...whether eyewitness reports provided by children during a court case are reliable. Children's memory capacity, their susceptibility to suggestion, and the delay between a crime and providing an eyewitness statement are some factors that can influence the reliability of these reports. Eyewitness reports provided by children can be reliable if given within a reasonable time frame, and that the presented questions are not suggestive. Also, that the eyewitness reports are provided by older children (9 to 12 years old), their reports tend to be more reliable than those of younger children (5 to 8 years old). Taking these factors into account in future court cases with children as eyewitnesses will ensure the best possible reliability in children's statements. The number of children as eyewitnesses is ever-growing and therefore child eyewitnesses are more involved in the field of legal testimony (Flin, Boon, Knox, & Bull, 1992). Due to this greater involvement, it is frequently questioned whether children are able to serve as credible eyewitnesses during a court case, especially in cases where the sole eyewitnesses to an offense are children (Flin et al., 1992). There can be several factors that might influence the reliability of children's eyewitness reports. Firstly, children of all ages have the capability to give accurate reports when they are asked to freely recall a particular event. However, the younger the children are, the less detail they will eventually report. Secondly...
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...Eye witness testimony is the ability of people remembering the details of events, such as accidents and crimes which they themselves have observed. The accuracy of eye witness testimony can be affected by factors such as misleading information, leading questions, post-event discussion and anxiety. Loftus and Palmer investigated how the language (leading questions) used in eyewitness testimony can alter memory. 45 students were shown 7 films of different traffic accidents. After each film the participants were given a questionnaire which asked them to describe the accident and then answer a series of specific questions about it. There was one critical. This question was ‘About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?’ One group of participants were given this question. The other five groups were given the verbs smashed, collided, bumped or contacted in place of the word hit. The mean speed estimate was calculated for each group. The group given the word ‘smashed’ estimated a higher speed than the other groups (about 41 mph). The group given the word ‘contacted’ estimated the lowest speed (about 30 mph). This suggests that memory is easily distorted by questioning technique and information acquired after the event can merge with original memory causing inaccurate memory. This may not be valid because the participants may not have taken the task seriously as they knew it was not real (lacks ecological validity) and there was little to no consent given by participants...
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...many different reasons why the reliability of eyewitness testimony in the United States judicial system today is all but flawed. There is only one way a witness can identify a suspect who has committed a crime, and it is called face to face recognition. Just getting a glimpse, bad weather, and bad lighting can hinder what a person can truly see. There have been several accounts of individuals that have been convicted, imprisoned, and put to death off of flawed testimonies by an eyewitness. In this I will attempt to show you my discussions of several statistics, convictions, exonerations, and key cases that will test the views of anyone when eyewitness testimonies are concerned. Within the past 30 years crimes were committed, and the people who witness these crimes made the cases have different outcomes. It used to be when a crime was committed, and someone came forward saying, “They have witnessed a crime”. History shows us when it comes to a traumatic experience dealing with crimes; the victims are different and as such react in many different ways. Most individuals panic, some are very calm, while others have no reaction whatsoever. The question has been raised about how reliable an eyewitness testimony truly is. Those who follow crime and courts trials know the stories are familiar and unnerving. Here is one case Cornelius Dupree spent 30 years Texas prison due to a 1979 rape and robbery he did not commit, because of one eyewitness. Cornelius was freed in 2011 through new DNA...
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...of an eyewitness is so flawed that it can never be trusted” To what extent is eyewitness testimony as flawed as the quote suggests? The eyewitness testimony can be inaccurate and distorted: Eyewitness testimony (EWT) is the evidence provided by people who witnesses a particular event or crime. It relies on recall from memory. EWT includes, for example, descriptions or criminals (e.g. hair colour, height) and crime scenes (e.g. time, date, location). Witnesses are often inaccurate in their recollection of events and the people involved. As you can probably imagine, this has important implications when it comes to police interviews. Many cognitive psychologists focus on working out what factors affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimony, and how accuracy can be improved in interviews. Loftus and palmer (1974) studied eyewitness testimony and investigated how EWT can be distorted. Loftus and Zanni (1975) also looked at leading questions. Loftus and Zanni (1975) showed participants a film of a car accident, then asked them either ‘did you see the broken headlight?’ or ‘did you see a broken headlight?’ there was no broken headlight, but 7% of those asked about ‘a’ broken headlight claimed they saw one, compared to 17% in the group asked about the accuracy of people’s memories of an event. The accuracy of eyewitness testimony is affected by many factors as well as leading questions, there are other factors that can affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimony...
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...evidence that encoding is different in short term and long-term memory. For example Baddeley There are huge differences in the duration of information in the short term and long term memory (Peterson & Peterson). (Bahrick et al.)oversimplified. (reductionist) | Outline and evaluate the working memory model (12) | Episodic buffer was added by Baddeley in 2000 | Active process: PET scans Amnesiac case studies Shallice & Warrington (1974) Baddeley (1986) found that patients with damage to their frontal lobe had problems concentrating suggesting damage to the central executive (researcher biased) | Outline and evaluate the cognitive interview (12)Outline and evaluate how a cognitive interview can be used to improve the accuracy of eyewitness testimony (EWT). (12) | Findings concerning the unreliability of eye-witness accounts have led researchers to attempt to devise methods for improving retrieval. One of these methods is the cognitive interview (Fisher and Geiselman, 1992). used by the police...
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...stores in memory Misleading information Source misattribution errors 3) Retrieval: Information the person retrieves at a later time Best guesses in line-up identification Leading questions - Inaccurate eyewitness testimony can have very serious consequences leading to wrongful convictions. - Why eyewitness testimony may be unreliable? * The role of anxiety: Baddeley 1997 reported that 74% of suspects convicted in 300 cases where eyewitness identification was the only evidence against them. Anxiety may lead to unreliable remembering depends on number of factors. * Research on ‘weapon focus’ Loftus 1979: P were exposed to one of the 2 situations; 1- They overheard a low-key discussion about an equipment failure. A person then emerged holding a pen with grease on his hands. 2- They overheard a heated and hostile exchange between people in the lab. After the sound of breaking glass and crashing chairs, a man emerged from the lab holding a paper knife covered in blood. P were then given 50 photos to try and identify the person. Findings: 1- Accurately identified the person 49% of the time. 2- Successfully 33% of the time. Conclusion: Reported a lab experiment which demonstrated the powerful role that anxiety can play in undermining the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. * Research on witnessing real-life events Yuille and Cutshall 1986: they interviewed 13 witnesses to a real-life shooting involving the owner of the store and an armed thief....
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...**Eyewitness memory refers to a witness’s ability to accurately reflect and provide evidence for a crime, in order to aid both the police and investigators in identifying a culprit (Wells et al., 1998; Thorley, 2013). Eyewitnesses are important since they provide unique insights by adding their personal recall of these past experiences. Since, these individuals witnessed the crime first hand they are considered to be suitable candidates to provide accurate and detailed descriptions of the perpetrator. It is imperative that the information provided is correct in order to identify the culprit. Otherwise, an innocent individual could be wrongly prosecuted. Now considering that an eyewitness is providing evidence based on their personal experiences,...
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...MEMORANDUM TO: FROM: RE: Keith Roberts case- PTSD and Fraudulent Disability Claims DATE: Question Presented Is eyewitness testimony able to provide evidence beyond a reasonable doubt of intent to defraud the Government through a diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) even though essentially it is one mans word against another’s? Short Answer Yes. Evidence from the accident report of the incident in question and interviews with the people recorded to be present in the accident report show that the defendant made false claims to receive compensation benefits. Statement of Facts In February 1994, Mr. Keith Roberts filed his first request for compensation benefits resultant of a diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which stemmed from an incident that occurred while he served on active duty status. In order to qualify for compensation benefits as a disabled veteran three things must be provided and they are listed as follows: 1. Official Diagnosis of PTSD 2. Credible evidence that sufficiently traumatic event occurred during active military service (in service stressor) 3. Evidence that the in service stressor caused the PTSD. See 38 C.F.R § 3.304(f). Mr. Roberts failed to provide all three documents in a timely manner, so the VA denied his claim. He failed to submit evidence of being diagnosed with PTSD and also to identify his in service stressor. In December 1994 he resubmitted the claim with a detailed...
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...Reading 16, Thanks for the Memories!, introduces the topic with a scenario of eyewitness reports as evidence and their reliability in a criminal trial. The question asked is along the lines why we believe what the eyewitnesses say. Naturally, we believe the eyewitness reports because something must have been vivid and truthful to be remembered so clearly. The book states, “memory is typically thought of as the replayingoi an event, exacdy as we saw it, like playing a video or DVD” (Hock, 2009). That is a concept that is questioned by psychologists that specialize in the study of memory. These psychologists question how much we can rely on memories. Elizabeth Loftus, a specialist in the field, found that a majority of the time the human brain recreates a situation, it is not done meticulously (Hock, 2009). What Loftus has found is called reconstructive memory. “Reconstructive memory is a result of our use of new and existing information to fill in the gaps in our recall of an experience” (Hock, 2009). Basically, our memory is subject to change due to what kind of information we obtain or situations that occur. The human brain can take something you saw in a T.V show and incorporate it into an existing memory to create...
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...They were shown a science demonstration throughout the day; later that day their parents read them a story, which contained aspects of the science demonstration. The next day, the children were questioned about the science demonstration and then were further asked to think about where they got their information from (source monitoring). Findings- It was found that the younger children were unable to source monitor as they could not identify where they learnt the information whereas the older children could. Conclusion- Poole and Lindsay concluded that the younger children are poorer eye witnesses than the older children as they are unable where they learnt the information. This means that they aren’t able to distinguish between original eyewitness memory and post event information. 2. What does this suggest about age and EWT? This suggests that age does affect EWT. 3. Explain why the story told at home could have been an extraneous variable… Interview bias (how the parents read the story) could have influenced the accuracy of the child’s response. The parents could have unintentionally prejudiced the child by how they read the story; techniques that could affect this could be their voice, their tone, or the time taken to read through the story. 4. How could this affect internal validity? This isn’t a controlled environment so this could have affected the results. 5. What ethical issues are there with Poole and Lindsay’s research? The research presents ethical...
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...then forcefully raped by him. Throughout the incident, Jennifer continued to analyze the man raping her in hopes of guaranteeing he was brought to justice. She looked at his facial features and clothing and body type. When it came time to chose someone out of the lineup, she was 100% sure that she had chosen the correct perpetrator- Ronald Cotton. After Ronald is convicted and sent to jail, Jennifer begins to rebuild her life while Ronald’s life begins to fall apart. The story then switches to the point of view of Ronald, who explains his side of the story and emphasizes his innocence. It was not until DNA testing came around that Ronald was able to truly prove his innocence. The overlaying theme of this story is that Jennifer’s eyewitness account was so strong that a jury believed, without a doubt, that Ronald Cotton was the man responsible for the rape of Jennifer Thompson. This certainty was quickly dispelled by DNA testing and brings about the problem of misconceptions. Jennifer thoroughly believed that Ronald was her rapist and this proves how easily it is for people to misidentify features of different races. It also helps to disprove eye witness accounts (Thompson-Cannino & Cotton, 2009, p.1-287). Keywords: rape, conviction, innocence, misidentification The People Behind Picking Cotton Each day something will come about that two people can perceive differently. This differentiation in the perception a person has can be related to a misconception. Most...
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