Factors affectig eye witness testimonies

essay discuss what factors affect ewt,reconsructed from various sources~ not always accurate. important to study~role of mem on law~lead to wrongful conviction.

1.ability to recall events~ influenced by our indicidual schemas (Bartlett) (e.g.schema~cog psychol) ~not in line with schema will be ignored.~ Allport and Postman (suppoty Bartlett)~investagated how stererotypes affect recall~ stererotype= schema cntaining beliefs about certain group of people. found white ps saw the knife in hand of black man not white man~suggests racial schema.~~~~but conduced in 1950~ppls attitudes changed a lot since then~not longer relevent in society today~also~all american ps~ethnoentric~black man could recalled differently (rasism)~thus affecting ewt again. ~~~ done in lab, artifical, lack ecological vailidity and no consequenencs of a real eyewitness.conclude lab can never be sure that how real ew would react (no emtion)

2.Leading Qus affecting ewt~L+P~verb affects speed estimate~how qus are worded will affect recall~done in lab,artifical,lack ecological validity~month after asked 'did you see the broken headihgt' 17% claimed there wasn't one there~ wasn't one~ suggesting leading qus affect recall~again, not normal to look at video and recall~no consequences on ew~~strength~lead to cog interview~police use this to aviod leading qus ~maintain ewt~more acccurate

however, contridicting~ 13ppl witnessed robbery, asked 4 months later again with leading us and were similair to original accounts~ affect of leading qus are diminished in real life sits~because there are consequences.

3.Weapon focus affect~ emotion can be clouded if weapons are present~focus on weapon not on indicidual~Loftus suggested~not uncommon after witnessing and armed crime for ppl to descrbe weapon and not the person~found ps cumtomer holding check book or gun, focus more on gun~support existence of weapon focus~could affect ewt by not giving accurate desciption of criminal~BUT ~no indiviual differences~ppl react differently to event, angry, sad~reductionist~to say emotion has affect on mem recall~emtion hard to define. ~~weapon effect ~ only valid for shorter crimes rather tha long ones e.g. hostage~more time to focus on criminal~thus wont affect reacall in this sit.4.overall~important to study~important evidence in court~ find ewt to be inaccurate~huge implication for society~ppl wrongfully convicted and use DNA more.key problem with reseach~ lab~artifical~lack emotion and ecologial validtiy~no consequescnes~ will not be the same~not appropirate to draw conclusions and generalise to wider pop. Not valid but incomplete understanding of factors, crucial for reseach to keep going~wrongful convictions~trust in law diminished