Eyewitness testimonies are considered unreliable and were neglected for helping gather evidence in Steven Truscotts case. There are two witnesses that provided evidence that indicates that a car could have been present where Lynn Harper was rapped. George Edens found Lynn Haper’s body and said you could see car skid marks. Bob Lawson said he saw a car parked near spot but he had never seen a car there before. This all corresponds with Steven Truscotts statement that he left Lynn Harper near highway
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An eyewitness testimony is simply‚ an account given by person or persons of an event that they witnessed. An example of this would be a witness giving a description on the stand at trial of a gas station robbery. The witness would recall the events that they saw take place‚ people they saw at the crime scene‚ and the perpetrators. Eyewitness testimonies have become an important area in human memory‚ and cognitive psychology. If a witness is asked to take the stand at a trial‚ the juries are known
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Running head: Eyewitness Testimony 1 The Effect of Cross-Examination on Eyewitness Testimony Abstracts Cross-examination increases the likelihood of eyewitness error. Preceding research indicates that while being cross-examined children alter a lot of their originally correct responses. An experiment conducted by Maras & Valentine (2011) describes in which the result of cross-examination on accurateness of adult eyewitness testimony was explored
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justice system‚ eyewitness testimony is one of the most commonly used pieces of evidence by a jury. It plays a crucial role in criminal court casesas it is relied on heavily for investigating and prosecuting crimes. Eyewitness testimony refers to an account given by a person of an event they have witnessed (McLeod‚ 2009).Whether a person is convicted of a crime or not can ultimately depend on how reliable a person’s recollection of a crime is. When correct‚ eye witness testimony can be helpful in
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Techniques for Improving Eyewitness Testimony: The Cognitive Interview An eyewitness is somebody who sees an act‚ occurrence or happening and can give a firsthand account of the event. The police often rely on such people to provide accurate recollections of these situations in order to aid in their investigations. Research has shown however‚ that eyewitness testimony can be inaccurate and unreliable. It is absolutely crucial that eyewitness testimony be as accurate as possible‚ as there have been
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Outline and evaluate the effect of anxiety on eyewitness testimony AO1 AO2 Yerkes Dodson law – states that there is an optimum level of anxiety for accurate eyewitness testimony. I.e. People who are not at all stressed‚ and people who are very stressed will be less accurate eyewitnesses that those who are under a moderate amount of stress. Loftus carried out a study of the ‘Weapon effect’. She set up two conditions of the experiment. In both conditions‚ participants heard a discussion in the
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Dec 1862; Eyewitness Testimony of Union Physician Louis Steiner‚ Dr. Lewis Steiner‚ Chief Inspector of the United States Sanitary Commission‚ observed General Stonewall Jackson’s occupation of Frederick‚ Maryland‚ in 1862. He wrote: Over 3‚000 Negroes must be included in this number of Confederate troops). These were clad in all kinds of uniforms‚ not only in cast-off or captured United States uniforms‚ but in coats with Southern buttons‚ State buttons‚ etc. Most of the Negroes had arms‚ rifles‚
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Steve Titus’s circumstances illustrates the dangers of source confusion during eyewitness testimonies. Source confusion occurs when the context and details of a stimulus are misremembered or confused with another stimulus‚ which may only appear familiar. In this case‚ Titus resembled a rapist who was wanted‚ as well as his car was similar to the rapist’s car. When Titus was shown in a lineup‚ he was picked out as the offender. This situation shows that people are capable of having no source memory
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One study of eyewitness testimony (EWT) was by Loftus and Palmer. Their aim was to see whether asking leading questions had any effect on recall. The method used was a laboratory experiment and had two parts to it. The first was showing participants (Ppts) 7 films of car accidents. Participants were then asked questions‚ including “How fast were the cars travelling when they **** each other?” The asterisks were then replaced with a different verb‚ including “smashed” and “hit.” The second part
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comparing textbooks and material that I have learned from both classes. Most recently‚ I have conducted research on the validity of eyewitness testimonies and the cognitive psychology behind it. I also had the opportunity to interview Dr. Robert Belli‚ a professor at UNL that focuses most of his research on factors that affect the reliability of eyewitness testimonies such as the misinformation effect and recovered memory. When considering all the problems that are associated with human memory it
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