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Essay On Eyewitness Testimony

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intro
Cognitive psychology is one of the very important areas in psychology. It is concerned with mental processes, such as how people think, learn, perceive and remember. In certain situations, an individual’s memory can seal someone’s faith. If a person has been present to a crime, their perception and their memory are seen as crucial to identifying the person who has committed the crime. Before DNA analysis found its way into courtrooms in 1986, eyewitness testimony was seen as the most persuasive form of evidence. Despite the fact that there have been many advances in technology of forensic science, eyewitness testimony is still the most persuasive form of evidence. People believe an eyewitness 80% of the time. We have troubles identifying an accurate (believed 68% of the time) and inaccurate testimonies (believed 70% of the time).
Even though it is the most persuasive form of evidence, it is not the most accurate form of evidence. A lot research has been done based on the accuracy of eyewitness testimonies, Buckhout has done a study in which he broadcasted a mock crime on the TV newscast, 2145 people have called in to describe the …show more content…

A person would be asked to identify a person in a line up or to choose among the mug shots. In 2000, Smith, Lindsey and Pryke have shown how identifications that are made more quickly are more accurate that those that take longer to make. The results of this study have been confirmed in 2002 by Dunning and Peretta. They have shown that identifications made within 10-12 seconds are the most accurate. IDs made in less than 12 seconds were shown to be 90% accurate, while the IDs made in over 12 seconds were shown to be 50% accurate. It has also been found that there are different strategies that witnesses use to identify the perpetrator, Dunning & Stern (1994) have found the 2 strategies and identified them as automatic recognition and the process of

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