Psychological Views of Eyewitness Testimonies

For example, Scrivner and Safer (1988) conducted a study in which a group of subjects were shown a videotape of a violent crime and then tested on their ability to recall details about the crime. The researchers noted that memory is often negatively impacted by violent, shocking, or traumatic occurrences (Scrivner & Safer, 1988, p. 371). Nevertheless, the researchers also found that the subjects' memories of the violent event tended to improve with each subsequent recall attempt (Scrivner & Safer, 1988, p. 376). In fact, Scrivner and Safer found that subsequent attempts often led to a state of "hypermnesia," in which the subjects exhibited an unusual ability to vividly remember specific details about the crime. This study also demonstrated that the use of emotional cues or context cues had little or no effect on the abil

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felt strongly that they had accurately pointed out the perpetrator following the lineup. The results of this study showed that pre-lineup confidence had little or nothing to do with whether or not the eyewitness would be able to accurately identify a criminal in a lineup. on the other hand, the study also showed that post-lineup confidence was a very strong indicator of accuracy (Cutler & Penrod, 1989, p. 652). From this, it can be seen that an eyewitness' sense of confidence after a lineup is a far stronger indication of accuracy than a sense of confidence prior to a lineup. Thus, Cutler and Penrod point out that pre-lineup confidence "should not be considered in determining whether or not to subject a witness to a lineup test . . . [and] it certainly should not be used in the evaluation of eyewitness identification accuracy" (Cutler & Penrod, 1989, p. 652). This sharply contrasts previous thinking on this topic, as exemplified in the Supreme Court ruling that "a witness's confidence should be used as a predictor of accuracy" (Cutler & Penrod, 1989, p. 650). In an effort to explain this phenomenon, Cutler and Penrod indicated that pre-lineup confidence may be based on "anticipated task difficulty," whereas post-lineup confi
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)