Becoming a Better Eye Witness

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Introduction

The eye witness testimony can be a key to proving an individual’s innocence or guilt in a particular case. Many judges seem to assume that the eyewitness report is almost true unless they have taken a psychology study. Eye witness accounts are frequently wrong even though some witnesses become certain that their perceptions were accurate. Unfortunately, perceptions don’t provide an instant replay of the incidence. Impressions generated when an individual is stressed, threatened, or surprised are normally prone to falsification. Since perceptions are regularly as distorted or imprecise of an expressive eyewitness, it is worth more lenient of others’ opinions. Placing more weight on the testimony of the victims may be a great mistake.  

Summary of an Article Related To Eye Witness Testimony 

Eyewitness memories are normally critical sources of evidence and information for probing an incident that occurred during a criminal offense. Even though playing a significant part in decision making and criminal examinations, eyewitness proof has time and again been found to be undependable and constitutes the main contributing feature behind unfair convictions. Inaccurate eyewitness information is occasionally a result of a witness’ well-thought-out lies about the target occasion (Brewer & Weber, 2018). Possibly less obvious, and another main cause of eyewitness mistake, is when an eyewitness provides truthful and straight information but recalls things wrongly.

While distinguishing between false and sincerely correct memories might be difficult to get valid legal judgments, the study has proven that individuals have great hardship in arbitrating others’ reminiscences’ exactness (Ackerman et al., 2011). Regardless of its significance to the judicial practice, quite little study has researched the magnitude to which the wrong witness recalls may contrast from those that are true. Whereas sureness in our memories is not a good predictor of correctness, investigation depicts a consistent positive association between memory accuracy and confidence judgments. According to theories, actual recollections of an eyewitness include more semantic information and contextual sensory, whereas fictional memories consist of more references to reasoning operations.

The article does not support the eyewitness testimony but rather discusses the possible issues associated with perception. It tries to provide insights into possible differences between false and incorrect verbal eyewitness testimonies. The article gives new support to the concept that retrieval power in eyewitness responses is crucial for discerning correct from wrong memory of occurrence facts. Furthermore, it proposes that a coarser but more comprehensive extent of delays before and during a rejoinder clarifies more difference in exactness than response latency. The article does not address a particular legal case but rather explains eyewitnesses’ accuracy and inaccuracy in a specific event or circumstance.

Conclusion

The use of eyewitness accounts is very common and frequently measured by the criminal fairness system to hold a great probative importance, particularly when the eyewitness has no intention to tell lies and when the witness memory confirms reality or the witness is very confident (Brewer& weber, 2018). Assessing eyewitness testimonies has demonstrated a hard task. Incorrect shreds of evidence are easier to retrieve than accurate proof, and confidence in a witness is based on retrieval effort. While accurate reports are usually given faster than mistaken ones, delays in responses prove a good predictor of accurateness than retort latency.

Reference

Ackerman, Rakefet, and Asher Koriat “Response latency as a predictor of the accuracy of children’s reports” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied 17.4 (2011): 406.

Bates, D., Maechler, M., & Bolker, B. (2015) Walker. S. Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. J Stat Softw, 67(1), 1-48.

Brewer, N., & Weber, N. (2008) Eyewitness confidence and latency: Indices of memory processes not just markers of accuracy. Applied Cognitive Psychology: The Official Journal of the Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 22(6), 827-840