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Eyewitness Testimony
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It could stimulate memory that could be important or relevant. Eyewitness testimony can be affected
by weapon focus leading questions and perception and memory, to name but a few. They were
randomly divided by ballot into two groups of 10. Give us your email address and we’ll send this
sample there. Loftus supports Bartlett’s idea of memory as reconstructive. Incorrect memories arise
form personal reconstruction to make sense of things which may not be true. Inconsistent
information results from wrongly linked nodes. This includes identification of perpetrators, details of
the crime scene etc. Certainly studies on recall of words and fairly straightforward memory tests lend
support to this belief. This reduced the likelihood of participants giving answers that they believed to
be incorrect or misleading to affect the results of the experiment. Outline and evaluate research into
the effects of misleading information on. Keep reading to learn more about it, the top five causes of
misidentification, and how a criminal defense attorney can help you if you are charged with a crime
in California. A school of thought is provoked by the studies of Elizabeth Loftus. At this point
participants were allowed to ask any questions as the true nature of the experiment was revealed.
This has great implications for the questioning in police interviews as it can lead to confabulated
evidence. Factors such as event characteristics, eyewitness characteristics and target characteristics
explained in this paper show that eyewitness testimony cannot be used as reliable evidence. In front
of each participant was an overturned questionnaire form with normal questions. The witnesses were
interviewed by police at the time then five months later the witnesses were interviewed again. He
got me my grand slam, and for that, I will be forever grateful. Poor view of events and their
perpetrators. 2. May not appreciate events’ significance at the time (e.g., con-man). 3. Changes in the
suspect's appearance (e.g. disguises). One example is for an officer to take an eyewitness to a lineup
and then give subtle clues about who they believe the witness should chose out of the lineup. The
number of people within a line-up who are similar to the suspect can affect the chances of correct
information. Inconsistent information results from wrongly linked nodes. After one week, all of the
participants were asked a further ten questions, and for the final question it was a conflicting
question. Georgia Public Safety Training Center 1000 Indian Springs Drive Forsyth, GA 31029.
Those with higher arousal were better than those with moderate arousal. The half of the first
condition was given the questionnaire with leading questions and the other half was given the
questionnaire with non-leading questions. It is based on two principles: Organisation and Context-
dependency. Also if there is a person in the parade wearing similar clothes to what the culprit was
wearing at the time of the crime then they can be mistakenly identified as the culprit. Loftus and
Palmer concluded that leading questions can affect the accuracy of witnesses’ accounts of events.
It appears that when a new object is mentioned it is integrated into the old memory and subsequently
indistinguishable from what was originally seen. What the man is really trying to do is to force to the
door because it is jammed. The testimony given by an eyewitness provides crucial evidence which
can determine whether or not a defendant is convicted. For example they may be required to give a
description at a trail of a robbery or a road accident someone has seen. One example is for an officer
to take an eyewitness to a lineup and then give subtle clues about who they believe the witness
should chose out of the lineup. Inconsistent information results from wrongly linked nodes. Do you
have any questions? (at this point any queries should be taken and addressed to the best of the
researchers ability, without giving away the true purpose of the experiment)”. While eyewitness
research has provided important insights, applying it directly to real-world cases faces challenges due
to differences between controlled experiments and complex real-world factors that affect eyewitness
reliability. Each verb achieved an estimate that was statistically significant in difference. A person
may get a glimpse of a person and their memory can fill in details they did not see or do not
remember, such as their hair color, eye color, weight, or height. This information will receive more
attention therefore its linkages will be strengthened resulting in improved recall of the said
information. An example stated in Eysenck and Keane (2000) found that when students from two
universities were shown a film of a football game involving teams from both universities, the
students showed a strong tendency to report that the opponent team had committed more fouls. In
most eyewitness testimony, it is up to the eyewitness to recall the distance between them and the
target. Also, a week later they were asked if they had seen any broken glass, there was in fact no
broken glass shown on the films. From this study it was found that participants who were asked the
speed when the cars smashed said higher speeds than the participants questioned with less harsh
nouns. In the court of law, this aspect of whether the eyewitness paid much attention to facial
features to be able to correctly identify a suspect becomes somewhat of an issue. This is clearly
shown in the book in the case of Elizabeth where subject’s were convinced that at one time she was
lost at the mall which had actually never happened yet a quarter of the subjects cited remembering
the event (Gazzaniga 133). Reconstructive Memory. Schemas. We must also remember the role of
schema (reconstructive memory- War of ghosts!). Victor Gunter. Irene Weiss. Juliska Heimlich.
Photograph. A Separate Form for Each Victim. The Writing Prompt. Write an eyewitness report
describing an event that has personal or historical significance. They were randomly divided by ballot
into two groups of 10. This is called demand characteristics and can be to the experimenter’s
detriment. Eyewitness testimony can be affected by weapon focus leading questions and perception
and memory, to name but a few. Poor view of events and their perpetrators. 2. May not appreciate
events’ significance at the time (e.g., con-man). 3. Changes in the suspect's appearance (e.g.
disguises). Georgia Public Safety Training Center 1000 Indian Springs Drive Forsyth, GA 31029.
Loftus claims that the nature of questions can influence witnesses memory. What role do police
officers and crime scene investigators play?. The Facts. Eyewitness testimony is highly regarded by
the courts, however there is a great deal of empirical evidence to suggest that eyewitness testimony is
not that reliable and the faith placed in by the courts is unjustified. Loftus supports Bartlett’s idea of
memory as reconstructive. What coloured top was the person wearing who was talking into the
passenger side. This method was chosen to avoid order effects, which could be a result of using the
same participants twice, this could have affected the result data collected.
They rely strongly on stereotypes, if you have to reconstruct your memory it will be heavily affected
by your stereotypes, and to stereotype is wrong and can lead to great prejudices. How reliable is
eyewitness testimony?. - Describe the issue. EWT can be influenced by lots of things, including
leading questions, anxiety and age. Loftus research shows one way of adding information after an
event has taken place is the questions asked by police or lawyers. At a time when I needed a legal
ally, Mike was there to not only represent me, but to vigorously defend me, using his twenty plus
years of courtroom experience to get my case dismissed.... Mike Fell uses his experience to gain
justice for his clients; he doesn’t need his clients to gain experience. Inconsistent information results
from wrongly linked nodes. For example they may be required to give a description about a trail of
a car accident they have witnessed. This is referred to as misattribution since the man could not have
committed the crime while he was having a television interview (Gazzaniga 125). This study focused
on post-identification feedback and separated their study into two main areas: confirming feedback
and disconfirming feedback to see whether these would affect how the eyewitness will proceed with
subsequent line-ups. Cross-biases, in which a person is more easily able to recognize faces of their
own race, can be a big issue that leads to misidentification and eventual criminal charges. Wells
(1993) pointed out that if the police fail to do this, the witness feels that they must make a positive
identification, as they believe that the police would not have set up an identification parade unless
they were fairly certain that the culprit is present. The independent variable in both of the
experiments is the verb used. After several days the participants were asked to recall the story.
Georgia Public Safety Training Center 1000 Indian Springs Drive Forsyth, GA 31029. Loftus claims
that the nature of questions can influence witnesses memory. Cohen (1966) as cited by Gross (2000)
showed that faces are not seen in isolation but that they are perceived or influenced by both the
event itself by people’s social norms and values and therefore stereotyped images. Fisher found that
eyewitnesses produced an average of 57.5 correct statements when given the enhanced interview,
compared with 39.6 with the basic interview. The testimony of eyewitnesses is first of all collected
by police officers once the crime is committed and recorded according to Code D of PACE. The
effects of the age of eyewitnesses on the accuracy and suggestibility of their testimony. This directly
affects my experiment, as it is an attempt to discover how valid eyewitness Testimony is in everyday
life. Although it is known that schemas can affect the way we remember events, Elizabeth Loftus has
been interested in the effects on memory of information provided after the event. This is 100% legal.
You may not submit downloaded papers as your own, that is cheating. Also you. Korait and
Goldsmith have shown that witness accuracy can be dramatically increased if tests do not rely on
forced- choice format and if witnesses are allowed to not answer if they feel unsure of the answer.
Also, more participants in the smashed condition claimed to have seen broken glass. In pairs, try to
think as many of these as possible. With his exceptional ability and dedication Mike will go the
distance to make you feel comfortable, reassured and truly blessed.... Mike is a Godsend, to say the
least. Give us your email address and we’ll send this sample there. Bartlett says that the human
memory is an active process, according to Bartlett research people organise their memories in a way
that fits their previous experience, when we remember events the gaps in our memory are
reconstructed based on our schema, a way of organizing information. The Writing Prompt. Write an
eyewitness report describing an event that has personal or historical significance. Glenville Municipal
Center How many cars are pictured? 2.
A Resolution Title 35 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, Chapter 1. This was to decipher
whether or not leading questions affect eyewitness testimony. It refers to an account given by people
of an event they have witnessed. One of the leading researchers into eyewitness testimony (EWT) is
Elizabeth Loftus. Victor Gunter. Irene Weiss. Juliska Heimlich. Photograph. A Separate Form for
Each Victim. Loftus also found that 17.3 per cent of group 2 also answered incorrect. Eyewitness
characteristics also factor in to the discussion of how reliable eyewitness testimony is in the criminal
justice system. We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email. Cohen (1966) as cited
by Gross (2000) showed that faces are not seen in isolation but that they are perceived or influenced
by both the event itself by people’s social norms and values and therefore stereotyped images. Also
these types of experiments are usually easier to replicate if results need to be checked or reaffirmed.
Loftus and Zanni showed participants a film of a car accident and then asked them questions
relating to it. Therefore people are reconstructing memories to conform their personal beliefs about
the world. After watching the film they were then asked questions including “How fast do you think
the cars were going when they hit?” In some cases the word hit was replaced other nouns such as
smashed, collided, bumped or contacted. Eyewitness testimonies can be flawed simply by the natural
memory processes that occur when people retain and attempt to retrieve information (Loftus, 1979).
This happens because the human memory is not perfect and eyewitnesses sometimes just get it
wrong also the brain is always making stuff up and people don’t usually doubt their memory.
Therefore witnessing a real crime is probably more stressful than watching a violent film so the
memory accuracy will probably be more affected in real life. At a time when I needed a legal ally,
Mike was there to not only represent me, but to vigorously defend me, using his twenty plus years of
courtroom experience to get my case dismissed.... Mike Fell uses his experience to gain justice for
his clients; he doesn’t need his clients to gain experience. Journal of Experimental Psychology:
Applied, 16(4), 387-398. Penrod, S. (2005). Eyewitness. In L. E. Sullivan, M. R. In laboratory
studies the same item is used for stimulus and recall whereas in reality the recall item could be a
photo where the situation is different e.g. wearing different clothes. They are both examples of an
independent measures design. When it comes to terrible events in one’s life, faulty memory is
convenient since there are things people would not wish to remember where Gazzaniga holds
evolutionary advantage as the reason behind this (Gazzaniga 123). The witnesses were interviewed
by police at the time then five months later the witnesses were interviewed again. Research suggests
that frightening situations may affect recall because attention is diverted to e.g. weapons. Please
watch this clip carefully as you will later be questioned on it. Incorrect memories arise form personal
reconstruction to. It is based on two principles: Organisation and Context-dependency. Cross-biases,
in which a person is more easily able to recognize faces of their own race, can be a big issue that
leads to misidentification and eventual criminal charges. Three stages of processing an important
event Encoding Storage Retrieval Factors that can affect eyewitness memory in these three stages
Encoding stage factors Stress, Violence, Unconscious Transference Storage stage factors Time
factors. One disadvantage of this may be that the differences between each condition could be due to
the differences of the individuals and not the leading questions. In pairs, try to think as many of
these as possible.
Although DNA evidence exonerated Mr Dougherty of the crime, many believed he was the
perpetrator due to the eyewitness testimony, and expert opinions were clouded due to the publicity
of this case. What coloured top was the person wearing who was talking into the passenger side.
Loftus claims that the nature of questions can influence witnesses memory. It states that we use our
past experiences to help with the comprehension of the world. Georgia Public Safety Training Center
1000 Indian Springs Drive Forsyth, GA 31029. Poor view of events and their perpetrators. 2. May
not appreciate events’ significance at the time (e.g., con-man). 3. Changes in the suspect's appearance
(e.g. disguises). Using identification tests discovered in numerous papers clarifies why witness
statement can be inaccurate and undependable. Bartlett research was called War of Ghost from a
Native American culture participants were British who shared norms and values would differ greatly
from that of a Native American. In conclusion Loftus has shown how language and wording could
influence a person’s recall of an incident. Loftus and Palmer (1974) showed participants a film of a
car accident, and later asked them questions relating to it. Therefore when people find themselves in
a situation they don’t understand or doesn’t fit their social values they change it in order to fit their
schema. Information is more likely to be accurate when a person is only moderately aroused, making
them more focused and far more likely to recall information accurately. The validity of Eyewitness
Testimony can be determined by regular revision of the actual testimony (Kapardis 2009. Another
factor relating to event characteristics is that of distance. This means that different participants were
used in both conditions. It is good for learning ideas and the connections between them. As there
were 2 conditions in this experiment participants were randomly divided into 2 groups by ballot. On
signing the form the participant gave their consent for participation in the experiment. Each verb
achieved an estimate that was statistically significant in difference. He obtained a result for me that
vastly exceeded my expectations, with an exceedingly professional manner throughout, and at a
reasonable price. By continuing, you agree to our Terms and Conditions. As previously stated, facial
recognition is more accurate when of the same race. He guided us through such a difficult time all the
while keeping us in the loop on navigating the court system for which he has such incredible
knowledge. Loftus concluded that the anxiety induced by the sight of a weapon narrows the focus
of attention. After one week, all of the participants were asked a further ten questions, and for the
final question it was a conflicting question. He got me my grand slam, and for that, I will be forever
grateful. Therefore when an eyewitness and a possible suspect are from different races the
identification of the suspect must be treated with caution. For instance, a woman who was being
raped happened to see someone on the television. House Resolution 1071, urging all Law
enforcement agencies to adopt the best practices of eye witness Identification by departmental policy.
Fisher found that eyewitnesses produced an average of 57.5 correct statements when given the
enhanced interview, compared with 39.6 with the basic interview.