An account of an event or crime that was seen by an observer firsthand
Eyewitness testimony may be unreliable, and affected by factors such as anxiety and posteventinformation
Post event information
Any information supplied to an eyewitness after the event that may affect their recall
Post event information
Leading questions
Postevent discussion
Weapon focus
When eye-witnesses attention is drawn towards the weapon a perpetrator is holding, which results in them being less able to recall other details of a crime
Post event information refers to any information that arrives after an event that may affect or distort eyewitnesses' memory of what happened
Human memory is reconstructive - memory doesn't record events in exact detail, like a camera
A person's ability to recall the events of a crime may be based more on their schema of the event than what actually occurred
Effort after meaning
Bartlett's term for how memory fits memories within pre-existing frameworks of expectations and past knowledge
Post event discussion
1. Witnesses talk to each other following the event
2. Accuracy of eyewitness accounts depends on this
71% of participants referred to details they could not have seen in the video and must have picked up as part of the discussion
Leading questions
Questions or statements that lead a person to a specific answer
Leading questions can trigger schemas and provide posteventinformation that affects eyewitness recall
Anxiety
Stress can affect the way eyewitnesses encode memories at the time of the crime
Moderate levels of anxiety are helpful to memory, but extremeanxiety is associated with a decline in recall
Weapon focus
The brain's natural tendency to zoom in on a weapon as the main source of stress, leading to forgetting or misremembering other details
Tunnel theory
Noticing a weapon produces a form of selectiveattention which excludes or ignores any other competing bits of information
The effect of leading questions has been demonstrated under laboratory conditions
Leading questions
Participants who heard the word "smash" gave higher estimates of speed compared to "contacted"
Participants who heard "smashed" were more likely to report seeing broken glass
Evidence from real crimes does not support the effects of leading questions after weapon focus (anxiety)
Witnesses to a real-lifeshooting produced accurate accounts despite the inclusion of leading questions
The effects of leading questions and weapon focus may be less pronounced when applied to real-life events
Weapon focus explanation
Supported by experimental evidence
Participants in control condition were better able to identify the man they saw compared to weapon condition
Weapon focus may be related to surprise as much as anxiety
Eyewitness research has led to the introduction of social framework evidence in legal cases
Psychologists may be called upon to provide context to juries on the unreliability of eyewitness testimony
Laboratory studies of eyewitness testimony exercise a high level of control but can never replicate the anxiety of a real life event
Research needs to include real-world observations to support the findings of laboratory studies