Free Essay

Eye Witness Testimony Can It Be Trusted?

In:

Submitted By alexcorbett
Words 625
Pages 3
“The testimony 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. The age of the witness can affect the accuracy of recall, Valentine and Coxon (1997) studied this and it showed that the age of the witness can have an effect on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. Anxiety can also affect focus. Psychologists tend to believe that small increases in anxiety and arousal may increase the accuracy of memory, but high levels have a negative effect on accuracy. In violent crimes (where anxiety and arousal are likely to be high), the witness may focus on central details (e.g. a weapon) and neglect other peripheral details. Loftus (1979) studied weapon focus in EWT. This is when the witness gets anxious and aroused, witnesses focus on a weapon at the expense of the other details, i.e. the criminals face.
The cognitive interview. The cognitive interview was developed to increase accuracy. Cognitive psychologists have played a big part in helping to increase the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. As you’ve seen, research shows that the accuracy of eyewitness testimony is affected by many factors. The cognitive interview technique was developed by Geiselman et al (1984) to try to increase the accuracy of witnesses’ recall of events during police questioning. Here’s basically what happens in cognitive interviews: The interviewer tries to make the witness relaxed and tailors his/her language to suit the witness. The witness recreates the environmental and internal (e.g. mood) context of the crime scene. The witness reports absolutely everything that they can remember about the crime. The witness is asked to recall details of the crime in different orders. The witness is asked to recall the event from various different perspectives, e.g. from the eyes of other witnesses. The interviewer avoids any judgemental and personal comments.
Conclusion: So yes the eyewitness testimony does have its flaws as I have explained and shown but I believe it is a good way of getting information from witnesses about crimes. Without the eyewitness testimony it would be based on the police’s judgement which is risky because they could look down on how the suspect looks and so on. So I disagree with the quote shown at the top, the eyewitness testimony definitely has its flaws but until something better comes along its all we have to identify crimes and to find out what happened.

Similar Documents

Free Essay

Can the Human Memory Be Trusted?

...Can The Human Memory Be Trusted? Many factors can influence eye witness testimony (EWT), EWT is a term used in the legal system when witnesses recall information concerning individuals who have committed crimes. The factors that could affect the accuracy of EWT may include leading questions, age and anxiety. So can the human memory really be trusted with so many effecting factors? Loftus and Palmer (1974) conducted a study with the aim of assessing the accuracy of memory after witnessing a car accident, and including leading questions to assess whether they could affect immediate recall. The researchers showed forty five students seven different traffic accidents, and giving each participant a questionnaire asking specific questions about the accidents. They also asked the critical question of ‘how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?’ however the other groups where given other verbs of smashed, collided, bumped and contacted instead of hit. Their findings included they word ‘smashed’ generated the highest mean score of 40.8 mph and ‘contacted’ generated the lowest of 31.8 mph. Loftus and Palmer reached the conclusion that the form of questioning has a significant effect on witnesses accounts of events. Therefore EWT is unreliable and inaccurate according to these researchers, although others can dispute this. Yuille and Cutshall (1986) interviewed thirteen people who had witnessed an armed robbery in Canada. These interviews took place four months later, and the...

Words: 761 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Nt1310 Unit 1 Assignment

...Structural processing occurs when we encode only the physical appearance of a stimulus (i.e. the look or meaning of a certain word) and phonemic processing occurs when we encode the sound of a stimulus (i.e. differentiate between multiple phonetic sounds). An occurrence where shallow processing would be more useful over a deeper level of processing is when we are reading literature. Using shallow processing, we can skim over a sentence and discern the meaning without having to commit every individual word to memory. By doing this, we have processed the meaning of the word only for the purposes of distinguishing the gist of the sentence as a whole. The individual words do not have to be memorized, but rather understood quickly in order to grasp the meaning of a sentence or paragraph. In this case, shallow processing would be a useful...

Words: 773 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Godly Spouse Analysis

...in God's eyes? There are many thoughts that I have but the following are the salient pointers that I trust will be relevant to your question. A godly woman has the following characteristics. 1. She knows the Lord Jesus as her personal Lord and Saviour and loves God and carries herself well in a gracious manner (Proverbs 11:16). Always marry a Christian who fears God and be not unequally yoked with unbelievers (2 Corinthians 6:14-18). 2. She has a loving, caring concern for both young and old including children (Psalm 113:9,...

Words: 728 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

More Than a Carpenter

...MORE THAN A CARPENTER BOOK SUMMARY By Josh McDowell, published by Tyndale house, Wheaton – Illinois, 1977:127 pages The author aims at demonstrating the uniqueness of Jesus, who is more than a carpenter. He does this by asking ten serious questions, which forms his chapter divisions, which are in-depth in trying to understand the identity of Jesus. In his preface, Mr McDowell argues that so many historians have agreed that Jesus lived one of the greatest life ever lived. His beauty is eternal and his reign shall never end. He is in every respect unique and nothing can be compared with him. All history is incomprehensible without Christ. In the first question, Mr. McDowell endeavours to investigate what makes Jesus different. Although Jesus was a great religious leader that only does not make him different and unique from others.. Mohammed, Buddha and other religious were great as well. Several things are highlighted by the author that make Jesus unique. Jesus was different because he was God. The gospels clearly states that he was 100 percent God. That meant that what God the father was able to do, he was also able to do, for example forgiveness of sins. Secondly, Jesus received worship and honour like that of God the Father. All that was due to the Father was accorded to Jesus. And also, Jesus was equal with the Father in nature. He was from the beginning eternal, not created. With this well reason out statements, McDowell explains clearly what makes Jesus different...

Words: 1803 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

The Realiability and Authenticity of the Bible

...The reliability and authenticity of the Bible The Bible claims to be the inspired word of God (2 Tim. 3:16, TEV). Yet much controversy and criticism exists over this book. If we are to accept and base our lives on the Bible as the word of God, then we need to have confidence in the reliability and the authenticity of the Bible. That is, we need to have confidence that the Bible is dependable and trustworthy and that what was written did happen. This essay outlines some convincing evidence to prove that this is the case. I will summarize and discuss bibliographical, external and internal evidence which confirms the reliability and authenticity of the bible. One of the first pieces of evidence lies in the uniformity of the message of the Bible. It is a collection of sixty-six books written over a period of approximately fifteen hundred years in three languages on three continents by forty authors. Kings, peasants, educated men, a doctor, a prime minister, a tax collector a rabbi, a fisherman are among the authors (McDowell, 1973). While it discusses numerous issues, and each book has different purposes, the overall themes of creation, the fall of man and redemption are clear throughout (Williams, 2002). Military historian Chauncy Sanders mentions three criteria scholars use in historiography (Williams, 2002). When applied to test whether the scriptures we have are the same as the original documents, that is to test their accuracy, these are manuscript evidence (textual)...

Words: 2327 - Pages: 10

Free Essay

Bible 1

...How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business? Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Get thee behind me, Satan; get thee hence: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. What seek ye? Come and see. Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas. Follow me. Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile! Before that Philip called thee, when thou wart under the fig tree, I saw thee. Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man. Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come. Fill the waterpots with water. Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. Take these things hence, make not my Father's house a house of merchandise. Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. † Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh:...

Words: 18474 - Pages: 74

Free Essay

Postmodernism

...The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search "The Innocent Man" redirects here. For a South Korean television series, see The Innocent Man (TV series). The Innocent Man | | Author(s) | John Grisham | Country | United States | Publisher | Doubleday | Publication date | October 10, 2006 | Pages | 368 | ISBN | 978-0-385-51723-2 | OCLC Number | 70251230 | The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town (2006) is a nonfiction book written by John Grisham, and his first outside the legal fiction genre. The book tells the story of Ronald 'Ron' Keith Williamson of Ada, Oklahoma, a former minor league baseball player who was wrongly convicted in 1988 for the rape and murder of Debra Sue Carter in Ada and was sentenced to death. After serving 11 years on death row, he was exonerated by DNA evidence and other material introduced by the Innocence Project and was released in 1999. Contents * 1 Synopsis * 2 Book edition * 3 References * 4 External links | Synopsis Ron Williamson has returned to his hometown of Ada, Oklahoma after multiple failed attempts to play for various minor league baseball teams, including the Fort Lauderdale Yankees and two farm teams owned by the Oakland A's. An elbow injury inhibited his chances to progress. His big dreams were not enough to overcome the odds (less than 10 percent) of making it to a big league game. His failures lead to, or aggravate...

Words: 18140 - Pages: 73

Free Essay

Synopticproblempaper

...Priority---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3 Q Hypothesis------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4 L and M------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------6 Two Gospel Hypothesis-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------7 Conclusion--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------10 Bibliography------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------11 Introduction There are differences in the area of Synoptic Gospel as well as there are large amounts of similarities that can be proved with all the evidence written as well as physical. The synoptic Gospels are ones that include Matthew, Luke and Mark. The reason they are called synoptic, which means, seen together, is because of their adjacent similarities, which allow the texts to be set out in congruence for comparison. It is commonly established that there is a “literary relationship” between them, but the “phenomena” are multifaceted and rulings on them are “conflicting.” “Prevailing in modern critical scholarship is the Two Document Hypothesis (TDH), namely, that Mark was the first gospel and was one of two...

Words: 3222 - Pages: 13

Premium Essay

Mark 10:17-31 (Analysis)

...young ruler. The young man had followed all the commandments since child hood yet it wasn’t enough, Jesus asked him to sell all that he had and follow him. The young man couldn’t do it and went away from Jesus sad. Jesus explained to the disciples how it is is impossible for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God, because a rich man will put his trust in his own riches. To finish the pericope Jesus goes on to explain that we can only be saved through God not by our works or deeds. This pericope really jumps out at me because my family has always been well off and we’ve always went to church and paid our tithes and gave in the offering. Yet, when God called me to give up the wealth that I had accumulated to evangelize overseas I readily accepted this call even though most likely I will never have the same wealth that I have now. This was a easy choice for me because my parents always had me read this particular portion of scripture and learn so I could better understand that no matter what worldly possessions that I acquire they won’t save me only God can. There is considerable evidence that the author we know as Mark wrote the first of the Gospels approximately 70 CE. One of the internal clues to the date of Mark's Gospel is at Mark 13:2, where Jesus was said to prophesy the destruction of the Temple, an event that occurred in 70 CE. According to Mark, Jesus went on to predict the end of the world within the lifetime of his followers. If Jesus had really prophesied the destruction...

Words: 2958 - Pages: 12

Premium Essay

Philosophy

..."nature" of anything means at least that we are ask-ing "what sort of thing is it?" To be sure, this question is none too precise, but it will do for a beginning. Again, our common-sense notion of "scope" tells us that an inquiry into the "scope" of any-thing means at least that we are asking "how far does it extend?" Again, this imprecise query will do for the moment. Notice that we are not asking whether we know anything at all. The reason is, as we shall see in detail later that this question cannot be asked at all, because to have asked it is to have answered it affirmatively. The real issue in any philosophical discussion of human knowing is to determine what is meant by 'knowing" and what general conditions must be fulfilled before one can legitimately make a claim "to know." Plato tried to answer these questions in the Theaetetus where he took up the dis-tinction made in the Republic between knowledge (epistēmē) and true belief (doxa). The...

Words: 49506 - Pages: 199

Premium Essay

Americas First Serial Killers

...FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY | H.H HOLMES | AMERICAS FIRST SERIAL KILLER | | Kevin Hutter | 10/20/2011 | H.H HOLMES, THE FIRST AMERICAN SERIAL KILLER, IN THE FOLLOW RESEARCH PAPER WE WILL BE LOOKING AT PSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF HIS CRIMES TROUGH HIS EARLY CHILDHOOD TILL HIS EXECUTION IN THE LATE 1800’S | Herman Webster Mudgett, better known under the alias of Dr. Henry Howard Holmes, was one of the first documented American serial killers in the modern sense of the term. Mudgett was born in Gilmanton, New Hampshire [4] to Levi Horton Mudgett and Theodore Page Price, both of whom were descended from the first non-native settlers in the area. According to the 2007 Most Evil profile on Holmes, his father was a violent alcoholic, and his mother was a devout Methodist who read the Bible to Herman. He claimed that, as a child, schoolmates forced him to view and touch a human skeleton after discovering his fear of the local doctor. The bullies initially brought him there to scare him, but instead he was utterly fascinated, and he soon became obsessed with death. Born to an affluent family, Holmes had a privileged childhood. It has been said that he appeared to be unusually intelligent at an early age. Still there were haunting signs of what was to come. He expressed an interest in medicine, which reportedly led him to practice surgery on animals. Some accounts indicate that he may have been responsible for the death of a friend. [2] Holmes also talked about his childhood...

Words: 2918 - Pages: 12

Free Essay

The Mystery Behind the Spiritual Alien Agenda

...hundred light-years away in what astronomers call the “Goldilocks Zone”, an area in which a planet has an ideal temperature because of its distance from a star. It orbits around a star similar to the sun of the Earth, and the temperature of its surface is habitable at 77 degrees Fahrenheit. Scientists are hopeful that this planet might possess water and land, but they are not sure as of the moment if the majority of it is made up of solid, liquid or gas (Bloxham). Kepler 22-b is just one of the extrasolar planets observed by NASA that has a probability to be inhabited by extraterrestrial life forms. Since 1960, NASA has funded different exobiology projects, including Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), in hopes that astronomers can find evidences of life in outer space. Thinking that extraterrestrials would likely leave something behind to signal other intelligent beings during their exploration, astronomers of SETI previously tried to detect interstellar probes to be able send messages back to them, but until now, none have been discovered. Despite this, scientists working on SETI have not given up, focusing more on searching for Earth-like planets in different galaxies. So far, they have discovered “super Earths” that are larger and less temperate than Earth. Some astronomers estimate that perhaps half of the 200 billion or so suns in the Milky Way support terrestrial, Earth-like worlds. What the astronomers do is pick out planets that orbit their suns at distances...

Words: 7781 - Pages: 32

Premium Essay

Study Notes of John

...Bible Study Notes and Comments by David E. Pratte Commentary on the Gospel of John Available in print at www.lighttomypath.net/sales Other Bible Study Materials by the Author Printed books, booklets, and tracts available at www.lighttomypath.net/sales Free Bible study articles online at www.gospelway.com Free Bible courses online at www.biblestudylessons.com Free class books at www.biblestudylessons.com/classbooks Free commentaries on Bible books at www.gospelway.com/commentary Contact the author at www.gospelway.com/comments Commentary on the Gospel of John: Bible Study Notes and Comments © Copyright David E. Pratte, 2010, 2013 All rights reserved ISBN-13: 978-1492190547 ISBN-10: 1492190543 Note carefully: No teaching in any of our materials is intended or should ever be construed to justify or to in any way incite or encourage personal vengeance or physical violence against any person. “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord” – 1 Corinthians 1:31 Study Notes on John Page #2 Comments on the Book of John Table of Contents Introduction............................4 John 1......................................8 John 2...................................39 John 3................................... 53 John 4...................................69 John 5...................................88 John 6................................. 109 John 7..................................134 John 8..................................153 John 9.........................

Words: 169910 - Pages: 680

Premium Essay

Tell Me Your Dreams - by Sidney Sheldon

...Tell Me Your Dreams by Sidney Sheldon BOOK ONE CHAPTER ONE Someone was following her. She had read about stalkers, but they belonged in a different, violent world. She had no idea who it could be, who would want to harm her. She was trying desperately hard not to panic, but lately her sleep had been filled with unbearable nightmares, and she had awakened each morning with a feeling of impending doom. Perhaps it's all in my imagination, Ashley Patterson thought. I'm working too hard. I need a vacation. She turned to study herself in her bedroom mirror. She was looking at the image of a woman in her late twenties, neatly dressed, with patrician features, a slim figure and intelligent, anxious brown eyes. There was a quiet elegance about her, a subtle attractiveness. Her dark hair fell softly to her shoulders. I hate my looks, Ashley thought. I'm too thin. I must start eating more. She walked into the kitchen and began to fix breakfast, forcing her mind to forget about the frightening thing that was happening, and concentrating on preparing a fluffy omelette. She turned on the coffeemaker and put a slice of bread in the toaster. Ten minutes later, everything was ready. Ashley placed the dishes on the table and sat down. She picked up a fork, stared at the food for a moment, then shook her head in despair. Fear had taken away her appetite. This can't go on, she thought angrily. Whoever he is, I won't let him do this to me. I won't. Ashley glanced at her watch. It was time to leave...

Words: 73172 - Pages: 293

Premium Essay

Faith Religios

...[pic] Table of Contents • Introduction • Chapter 1 Marriage Is Good! • Chapter 2 Love • Chapter 3 Learning Submission • Chapter 4 The Marriage Bed • Chapter 5 Understanding Male/Female Differences • Chapter 6 Communication • Chapter 7 Walking In Wisdom • Chapter 8 Hospitality • Chapter 9 Family Finances Part II: Hinderances To A Happy Home • Chapter 10 The Works Of The Flesh • Chapter 11 The Tongue • Chapter 12 Covetousness • Chapter 13 Unforgiveness • Chapter 14 An Answer To Seperation Introduction Right from creation, God demonstrated His interest in and value placed on the marriage institution and the family, by being practically involved in its institution. He did not simply speak it into being as He did the beast of the field and the fowls of the air. He carefully put it together step by step. God put man to sleep and from his side took a rib and formed the woman. Not stopping there, God took the woman by the hand and led her to Adam. Therefore marriage is a unique relationship, having its root in divinity (Gen. 2:22). However, marriage and family life, a thing of joy, pleasure, and high esteem at creation is now treated by many as a necessary evil and looked at by some disdainfully. "Those in it want to rush out and those outside want to rush in," they say. This has resulted in the fast disintegration of the marriage unit and subsequently the family. Statistics indicate that the decline of marriage and the family...

Words: 31931 - Pages: 128