Key Question EWT

• What is eye witness testimony?


  Is evidence from a person who was present at the time of a crime
• When is eyewitness testimony more important?


  With the absence of objective physical evidence - DNA evidence, CCTV
• What is the result of inaccurate eyewitness testimony?


  wrongful conviction and the criminal is still at large
• Who is case is an example of this?

  Ronald Cotton spent 11 years wrongfully convicted of rape charges
• Who was the actual guilty person in this case?

  Bobby Poole
• What is the data from the innocence project?


  Estimated 2% to 5% of all prisoners are innocent
• What is the data for eyewitness testimony?


  Estimated that the percentage of wrongfully convicted or 72% due to eyewitness testimony
• How can reconstructive theory be linked to eye witness testimony?


  The memory of eyewitness testimony is actively reconstructed using schemas
• What are the problems with schemas and eye witness testimony?


  The eyewitness might subconsciously reconstruct the memory with schema meaning memory is now in accurate
• What is a downside to reconstructive memory being associated with eyewitness testimony


  It’s a criticised theory as it emphasises the inaccuracies in eyewitness testimony and memory
• What is another theory that can go alongside eyewitness testimony?

  Tulving episodic and semantic memory
• How are eyewitness memory stored?


  As episodic memories
• Why are episodic memories criticised?


  They are prone to distortion and can be inaccurate
• What can counteract the inaccuracy?


  The correct context they were formed in
• What can police do to get the right retrieval cues?

  Recreate the scene of the crime
• How can the MSM be applied to EWT?

  information only enters to the LTM via STM after attention and rehearsal is payed towards it meaning if the eye witness isn't paying attention then the memory can be inaccurate.
• what is a disadvantage of this theory linking to flashbulb memories?


  they don't require rehearsal to enter the LTM and they do not pass through the STM either making the memories more likely to be inaccurate