Order Description
An eyewitness is someone who through one of the five senses witnessed an event and can provide information about that event. The criminal justice system heavily relies on eyewitness identification in the investigation and prosecution of crimes. Based on the research in the field of psychology, the justice system has been warned about the problems with reliability when it comes to eyewitness identification evidence. For example, recent DNA exoneration cases have corroborated these warnings by showing that mistaken eyewitness identification was the largest single factor contributing to the conviction of these innocent people (Wells & Olson, 2003).
Dr. Elizabeth F. Loftus is a cognitive psychologist and expert on the malleability and reliability of memory. She has conducted numerous studies of over 20,000 subjects investigating the unreliability of eyewitness testimony. As a result of her research, Dr. Loftus concluded that there are numerous errors which occur in eyewitness’s accounts. There are three factors which seem to be primarily responsible for such errors, including 1) the inherent unreliability that occasionally plagues human perception and memory; 2) human susceptibility to suggestion (both unintentional and intentional); and 3) the last factor has more to do with the person hearing this evidence than with forces that directly affect the witness. More specifically, laypeople and even some judges are often unaware of the potential unreliability of eyewitness accounts and thus place significant weight to such testimony than is warranted (Greene, E. & Loftus, E. F., 1984).
Observe the reliability or unreliability of eyewitness identification for yourself. More specifically, replicate the brief Loftus experiment depicted in the video.
