Eye Witness Testimony
The Psychology of Eyewitness Accounts The human memory, while in many ways an amazing tool, is highly flawed. Although we have the power to remember a vast amount of information, our mind can use our memory to essentially "trick" us, sometimes even to the extent of remembering in detail events that never transpired. Despite these limitations, the testimony of eyewitnesses has become the most crucial evidence towards conviction in criminal cases (Loftus 9). In this way, our legal system depends on the reliability of an exceptionally faulty source. Jurors in court cases tend to believe eyewitnesses (Gorenststein 616). Faced with conflicting or ambiguous testimony, they are tempted to put their faith in people who actually "saw" an event. This faith in eyewitnesses maybe misplaced, however. Although eyewitness accounts are essential to courtroom testimony, studies clearly show people who say; "I know what I saw," often mean, "I know what I think I saw." And these people may be wrong (Migueles 259). Psychologists have attempted to measure the ability of witnesses to recall specific facts surrounding an emotional event, as in the article "Recall, Recognition, and Confidence Patterns in Eyewitness Testimony," by
(Loftus 21) At the second stage of memory, storage, acquired stimulus information is stored. To the degree that the post-event information is false, this results in the ultimate memory becoming more inaccurate. Retrieval, the final stage in the memory process, involves the recall of information from the memory store. In other pertaining articles, information processing is reviewed by stages; from the time it is received to the time it is retrieved, and all of the faults, problems, and decay information goes through before is it regenerated. Yet, the types of questions that eyewitnesses are asked may influence recall. Moreover, questions that eyewitnesses are asked after the crime have been found to interfere with information that eyewitnesses acquired during the crime. It is not altered by external or subsequent events. For example, a bank teller who has been robbed may mistakenly identify a one of his regular customers as a suspect. (262-65) Memory does not function like a video recorder. Seven weeks later, these students were asked to pick the perpetrator from a group of 6 photographs. The first stage, or acquisition stage, involves the initial perception of an event, and in the case of eyewitness accounts, witnessing a crime. " (Loftus 122) Post-event information is information that is learned after an event takes place that is then integrated into the memory of the event. This phenomenon was demonstrated by Robert Buckhout (1974) when he staged a mock assault in front of 141 unsuspecting college students. Suggestive questioning procedures, therefore, should be eliminated as much as possible to minimize their effect on eyewitness accuracy. (Lipton 94) Martin 7 During the process of information received and retrieved, there are numerous persuasive factors to alter the memory.
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