Eye Witness Testimonies

Eyewitness Testimonies

What is an EWT?

• the evidence provided by people who witnessed a particular event or crime

• It relies on recall from memory

Eyewitness Testimonies

what might an EWT include?

• descriptions of criminals (eg: hair colour, height)

• descriptions of the crime scenes (eg: time, date, location)

Eyewitness Testimonies

What is the accuracy of EWTs?

• often inaccurate

• this has important implications when it comes to police interviews

Eyewitness Testimonies

What do many cognitive psychologists focus on?

working out what factors affect accuracy of EWTs + how accuracy can be improved in interviews

Eyewitness Testimonies

What is the first stage of EWT memory?

• The witness encodes into LTM details of event + people involved

• Encoding may be only partial + distorted, esp bcs most crimes happen v quickly, often at night, + sometimes accompanied by rapid, complex and often violent action

Eyewitness Testimonies

What is the second stage of EWT memory?

• Witness retains the info for period of time

• Memories may be lost/modified during retention (most forgetting happens within first few minutes of a retention interval)

• other activities b/w encoding + retrieval may interfere w/ the memory

Eyewitness Testimonies

What is the third stage of EWT memory?

• Witness retrieves the memory from storage

• The presence/absence of retrieval cues/the nature of the questioning may significantly affect accuracy of recall

Eyewitness Testimonies

What are ways EWTS can be affected?

• misleading information

• post event discussion

• anxiety