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Eyewitness Identification and Testimony
Eyewitness memory
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Eyewitness Identification and Testimony
Eyewitness memory
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Recommended: Eyewitness Identification and Testimony
She was shown photographs which included Hay’s photograph (taken 18 months earlier) and she selected him as an 80% likeness. Three weeks later, she was shown a sequence of photographs which included one of Hay (taken hours after the murder) and she did not select any photograph. At a second identification process, Maillard didn’t select any photographs and, when shown the photograph of Hay she stated that he looked very different and that in his arrest photo, he did not have a gaunt face like that of the second gunman at the club. An article by Pezdek, Abed & Cormia (2021) explores the relationship between stress and eyewitness memory accuracy, as well as the relationship between stress and eyewitness confidence. They found that stress impairs the accuracy of eyewitness memory but not the confidence-accuracy relationship.
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.
It states “scientific research indicates that identification procedures such as line-ups and photo arrays produce more reliable evidence when the individual line-up members or photographs are shown to witnesses sequentially – one at a time – rather than simultaneously.” By giving the reader such a valuable piece of information from a credible source, it engages Loftus’ readers into going more in depth with the research into finding out more about the recommendations provided. This is an attempt by the author to encourage those who are familiar with the justice system particularly in Canada and the United States who both mainly use the adversarial court system to rise up and take part into bringing in a new method that will protect the defendant while in court from being falsely accused of a crime they did not
This shows that Zimmerman’s first instinct was to act on the negative stereotypes he had put on Martin instead of giving Martin an opportunity to make his own impression. Zimmerman’s reaction was not unordinary as many studies have claimed that stereotypes can
Summary The article written by Amanda Taub named, “A Social Reflex: Police and Blacks, Seeing Threat, Close Ranks” discusses the reason as to why the violence between the police and blacks have become exponentially talked about in the matter of months. She argues that it is because of group identity and how the violence committed strengthened the group identity of both the police and the blacks. She mentions in-groups and out-groups and how they each are related to one another, and how threats and violence can heighten “out-group hate” (Tuab). She also states that what contributes to group identity is the fact that “when people see others in their social group subjected to harm because of their membership in that group, they don't just sympathize
Effects of post identification feedback on eyewitness identification and nonidentification confidence. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89, 334–346. Lindsay, R., & Wells, G. (1985). Improving eyewitness identification from lineups: Simultaneous versus sequential lineup presentations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 70, 556–564.
If you’ve ever seen The Breakfast Club, you’ll know that at the beginning of the movie each teen identified as and viewed each other as a different archetype: a brain, an athlete, a basket-case, a princess, and a criminal. But by the end of the film, they were able to understand and admit that they all share many of the characteristics associated with each other’s groups, and that they had all simplified each other to a stereotype. This is how I feel about archetypes, too—archetypes are easy and can fit one’s surface, but they are not realistic. Humans are dynamic beings and no person can fit into one static stereotype.
Own-race identifications are those in which people distinguish someone of the same race as their own. Cross-race identifications mean identifying individuals from a race different from our own. A comprehensive study, with 271 real court cases, was conducted in connection with these issues and the results revealed that witnesses pertinently identified 65% of the defendants who were of the same race as them. On the other hand, 45% of the defendants were identified who belonged to a different race than the witnesses. A further scientific study also indicates that own-race identifications are liable to be more precise, by 10 percent to 15 percent, than cross-race identifications (Eysenck and Keane
As Loftus explains, we are so willing to accept unreliable eyewitness accounts because we do not understand how memory actually works. Most people believe the "video camera" scenario instead of the "evolutionary" scenario. Because of this misconception we are very strongly inclined to believe eyewitness accounts. “Why is eyewitness testimony so powerful and convincing? Because people in general and jurors in particular believe that our memories stamp the facts of our experiences on a permanent, non-erasable tape, like a computer disk or videotape that is write-protected,” (p. 21).
Person perception is a term adopted from social psychology that refers to the cognitive procedures humans employ to arrive at inferences about who other people are (Cherry). Humans use cognitive shortcuts to quickly assess their surroundings, make attributions, and form impressions of people. One of the cognitive techniques used to make this assessment is social categorization. Categorization is an essential cognitive function as it assists in shaping perception by allowing individuals to bring organization and structure to our knowledge of the world around us (Bodenhausen, Kang, and Peery 318). The use of social categorization by the media and trial lawyers during a trial have a major impact on the societal perceptions and characterization of the victim(s) and the defendant(s).
In John Godfrey Saxes “The Blind men and the Elephant”, each man is describing one aspect of the elephant, which in turn distorts the entirety of the image. This often transpires in everyday life when a person judges someone based on a particular trait, as opposed to acquiring all of the facts. Essentially, stereotyping, perceptual defense, and the halo/horn effect, are three facets of perceptual errors that occur on a regular basis. (OB or BO?, 2012). To illustrate, a person that rides a motorcycle and has a borage of tattoos, may be classified as a “bad” person or a “trouble maker”(horn effect).
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
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).
Stereotypes create a widely believed mental picture of that group. For example, in About Men, Gretel Ehrlich mentions that “...he’s gruff, handsome, and physically fit on the outside…” Ehrlich’s choice of diction helps the reader develop a mental picture of
If implored to think of a traditional white, Christian, middle class family, many would conjure up similar images to the white picket fence living characterized so strongly in mass media. Turn on the TV and there they are- the perfect white suburban family. Two kids, named Matt and Sarah, and their dog; Sasha, a Golden Retriever, of course. Mom stays at home with the kids, holding down the fort while Dad dons his monkey suit to work at the law firm each day.