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Explain How Eyewitness Memory Affected By Internal Factors, And Schemas

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The question under investigation in the essay is: how is eyewitness memory affected by external and internal factors, and schemas? This question is very important in everyday situations where there is a case of a crime, an accident or murders and there needs to be questions answered. In most of the cases, there probably have been people around when all these crimes occurred who could serve as eyewitnesses in court hearings or police reports. Investigators call these people to help them clear the events that unfolded during the crime, whether it was a burglary or other type of incident. Most of the eyewitness called to give their side of the story most likely have problems remembering what occurred during the day of the crime.
This paper will discuss all those factors which could lead a person into giving inaccurate information during an investigation. Eyewitnesses are a crucial part of an investigation because on them depends the verdict given to the person who supposedly committed a crime. If a person gives an inaccurate testimony to the court …show more content…

An external factor could be thought as something that has nothing to do with what the person is thinking during the crime. The distance between the scene of the crime and the witness is one example of an external factor that could play a role in a later investigation report. The weather and kinds of objects are also thought of as external objects affecting an investigation.
Although it is more common that an eyewitness be an adult sometimes this is not the case in certain occasions. Some of the eyewitnesses could be children as well who have experienced for example some kind of abuse and not necessarily witnessed a crime such as a robbery or accident. However, the same factors which apply to adults also apply to children. These factors could be the type of question asked, the wording of the question and also false

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This week’s topic was very interesting to learn about how important eyewitnesses can be when a crime and accidents do occur. In the case that was presented in the 60-minute segment of Ronald Cotton and Jennifer Thompson is exactly how legal system can fail us when it comes to the eyewitnesses’ identification testimony and how a person’s perception and memory can be altered. The aspect of psychology and law research from this week’s course material is most relevant to the topic of perception and memory. The memory has different stages the first is encoding the process of entering perception into memory.

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This variable is very important when a witness is encoding an event such as the murder of a person because the attention that is given to the crime can determine the accuracy of the information that the witness reports. The second variable that is looked at in this process is the amount of time that the witness was exposed to the crime. According to the textbook, this variable goes hand in hand with attention because the longer the witness encodes the event, the stronger the memory will be for later recall (Schwartz, 2016). The third variable that is considered in this process is the distance and lighting in which the witness encodes the event. For example, when a witness finds himself ten feet away from the event, he is more likely to encode more details from the crime than from a witness who is twenty or thirty feet away.

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PAPER 1: FALSE CONFESSION ASSIGNMENT Legal issues involved in the interrogation of criminal suspects are the leading cause for wrongful conviction of innocent individuals based off of false confessions. The primary motive for police officials is to close a case with a written and verbal confession from a possible suspect. Confessions override evidence if the confession is convincing enough to the jurors. Most people assume that people would not confess to a crime they didn’t commit, but due to the harsh interrogation circumstances, psychological coercion and situation factors, these can influence an innocent individual to confess to a crime they didn’t commit.

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Her earliest studies of eyewitness testimony addressed several issues: when someone sees a crime or accident, how accurate is his or her memory? These studies led Loftus to ask what happens when witness are questioned by police officers, and what if those questions are suggestive (Loftus, 2003). For instance, when Loftus began showing people films of traffic accidents, she found that a question such as “How fast were the cars going when the smashed into each other?” led to higher estimates of speed than a more neutral question that used the verb “hit”. Moreover, the “smashed” question led more people to falsely remember seeing broken glass when there was none.

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This creates a major issue within a judicial system. It takes a few eye witness testimonies towards the prosecuted individual to incarcerate them, even if they did not commit the crime. It is because of this reason that Scott Fraser chooses to speak out against eye witness testimonies. In his speech, he argues that memory is fallible and should not be as heavily relied upon within the judicial system.

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He appeared in a photo spread, a police line-up, an employment photo, and followed again in court. This interfered with the victim’s short term memory, causing her to recall his face when reminded of the attack. It is as if he was forced into her head. This caused the victim’s eye witness testimony to be inaccurate and defected. The mind of an individual cannot collectively encode memories while experiencing such trauma as

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Eyewitnesses are very faulty. There are many circumstances where a witness’ memory can be altered or clouded. Throughout the 1900’s to the late 2000’s scientists found that in 239 cases, 73% of them were wrongly convicted due to

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There were many major movements and goals of the antebellum reform. Before the Civil War, almost 100 reform communities were instituted. Some were democratic, others were ruled over by an interesting leader. Most of them were motivated by religion, but some had desires to reverse social and economic changes. Almost all of these communities wanted to have a cooperative society, to revive social harmony in an individualistic society and to close the growing space between the rich and the poor.

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Part One is very informational and contains the bulk of the book’s research. The information was presented in a thesis format; Loftus stated a claim and then supported her ideas with research and quotations from experts in the field of law and memory. Part One is helpful for psychologists, attorneys, and interested law people. The major principles concerning the errors in eyewitness testimony are supported by research and are accepted by psychologists (Kassin, Ellsworth, & Smith, 1989). Part One will contribute to the future of psychology by showcasing how the memory works and the different ways it is manipulated and changed: this will allow jurors and lawyers to become more wary when dealing with a traumatized

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Eyewitness identification is highly important in criminal trials without it it lets the defendant off a little easier, despite this different steps should be taken in order to avoid legal issues such as false eyewitness

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Are You Sure? Why have more than two-thousand people exonerated for crimes they didn’t commit? Eyewitness misidentification is the leading cause of wrongful convictions in the U.S. Memory can be influenced by anxiety, stress, reconstructive memory and other factors possibly affecting the testimony of the eyewitness and in turn, misleading the jury. I think that when subjects witness a crime they will struggle to remember important details of the event, and their recollection could be easily altered. This is because the reconstructive memory can be influenced by factors such as stress, anxiety, and verbal cues.

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Researchers stated that 1 out of 4 individuals are wrongfully convicted because they feel that complying with a police officer by saying they admitted to the crime would be more beneficial then continuing to prove their innocence. Fear of violence, mental impairment, ignorance of the law, intoxication, and the threat of a harsh sentence are some factors that lead to false confession during a police interrogation. Confessions obtained by juveniles are often untrustworthy because children can be easily influence by an officer, which they are not aware of their situation and consequence. Many law enforcement officers are not fully trained to interrogate suspects with mental disabilities because some mentally capable adults can give false confessions

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According to the article, these eyewitnesses called Compliance and Eyewitness Testimony: Do Eyewitnesses? The test subjects had complied with misleading 'expert pressure' during investigative Interviewing (Roper, Rachel, and David Shewan, 2002). "The study is viewed as an exploratory one but the authors suspected that participants labeled as ‘poor' eyewitnesses will deliberately alter their answers” (Roper, Rachel, and David Shewan, 2002). This experiment could prove that with the suggestion that an individual is a poor eyewitness, could change the outcome of a case. According to the "Judge rejects bid from Angola Three's Albert Woodfox after 40 years in solitary," Albert Woodfox was rejected defense efforts (Judge Rejects Bid...).

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Cognitive level of analysis studies cognition, cognition means that it is involved with thinking, knowing, remembering and communicating. This includes memory, which is an important cognitive process specially when looking into eyewitness testimony. Eyewitness testimony is a legal expression signified to an incident people have witnessed such as, it might be an accident on the road people have seen and need to give their account. Juries in a court case pay extremely close attention to the eyewitness testimony and typically find it a reliable source of information however; it can be affected by psychological influences like leading questions, schemas and reconstructive memory. Schema theory, which was introduced by Bartlett, is a cognitive

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Furthermore, there can be several factors at play when a wrongful conviction occurs and each case is unique. Three of the more common and detrimental factors that will be explored in this essay are eyewitness error, the use of jailhouse informants and professional and institutional misconduct. Firstly, eyewitness testimony can be a major contributor to a conviction and is an important factor in wrongful conviction (Campbell & Denov, 2016, p. 227). Witness recall and, frankly, the human emory are not as reliable as previously thought. In fact there has been much research showing the problems with eyewitness testimony such as suggestive police interviewing, unconscious transference, and malleability of confidence (Campbell & Denov, 2016, p.227).

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