Essay about Eye-Witness Testimony - 2113 Words

Eye-Witness Testimony Until now we have focused upon theoretical psychology that employ methods that are removed from real life. Neisser was one psychologist who criticized his fellow psychologists for concentrating too much on theoretical concepts and ignoring the practical issues involved about memory. It is memory from real life experiences that psychologists must concentrate on and one aspect of this is known as the eyewitness testimony. Reliability of Eyewitness Testimony ----------------------------------- It is without doubt that eyewitnesses to a crime are one of the most important people to the police when trying to get a conviction but we must remember that sometimes†¦show more content†¦like we take photographs. He believed that instead of taking exact replicas of the initial stimulus, we weave it with existing knowledge and experience to form a reconstructed memory. This is known as effort after meaning. Bartlett carried out a number if experiments to investigate how people recall things. In one of his best-known studys he read English participants a folk tale derived from Red Indian culture called The war of the ghosts. This was an unusual story for people from a western culture to understand because it contained unfamiliar supernatural concepts. After an interval, the participants were asked to recall as much about the story as possible. Bartlett found that their accounts were distorted in several ways with were consistent with a western-world view. Specifically he found the following differences: * Rationalizations - People added information or justification for actions that were not in the original. * Omissions - Information was left out particularly that of which was most difficult for westerners to understand. * Changes of Order - Events were reordered in order for the tale to make more sense. * Alterations in Importance - Certain parts were given more prominence than in the original story. * Distortion of Emotion - People incorporated their own feelings and attitudes towards the story. So, according toShow MoreRelatedEssay about Eye Witness Testimony625 Words   |  3 PagesEye Witness Testimony The language used by the police when interviewing witnesses and barristers during a trial may influence answers given by witnesses, this language may affect initial perception and subsequent recall. Both of these effects are shown in the study by Loftus Palmer {1974). My experiment into this field showed the leading question with the `verb` contained the information about what the answer should be, thus language can have a distorting effectRead MoreOutline and Evaluate Research Into the Effects of Anxiety on the Accuracy of Eye Witness Testimony.873 Words   |  4 PagesOutline and evaluate research into the effects of anxiety on the accuracy of eye witness testimony. Eye witness testimonies are the evidence given in court or in police investigation by someone who has witnessed a crime or an accident. Eye witness testimonies are affected by a number of factors, but the one that I am going to focus on is anxiety. Laboratory studies and some ‘real life’ studies have generally shown impaired recall in people who have witnessed particularly distressing or anxietyRead MoreEyewitness Testimony And Its Impact On The Outcome Of A Trial892 Words   |  4 PagesHow Accurate Are Eyewitness Testimonies? Have you ever been a witness to a crime? 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The Reconstructive nature of memory - Schemas and Stereotypes The reconstructive nature of memory is related to the schema theory. A schema is a package of memory that is organized and developed throughout our lives. Schemas are stored in long term memory. Most people have similar schemas and this was recognized by Bower, Black and Turner (1979) when they asked several peopleRead MoreEyewitness Identification, Criminal, And Criminal Law Essay1487 Words   |  6 Pagesmajor flaws with law enforcement, prosecution deals, and an overloaded system: This could happen to anyone. State prosecutors should not be able to convict anyone on eyewitness testimony only, without any other physical or forensic evidence. In eyewitness identification, in criminal law, evidence is received from a witness who has actually seen an event and can so testify in court.† (Law.com Legal Online Dictionary) While this could be an important piece of the investigation, it can never take theRead MoreEyewitness Testimony And Evidence Testimony Essay1082 Words   |  5 Pagesaccordingly, other times the innocent is judged guilty. Eyewitness testimony gives details about what happened, identification of perpetrators. Eyewitness can be the central focus of the whole investigation, and is also heavily focused on and powerful in the courtroom. Hence, eyewitness testimony is largely one of the reasons as to why innocent individuals are thrown in prison. Although generally without a doubt, eyewitness testimony is helpful to the court and investigation, but memory alone is not