Reasons why eyewitness testimony is unreliable

Most U. Yet psychologist Gary Wells of Iowa State University and his colleague Lisa Hasel have amassed considerable evidence showing that the experimental findings do apply to courtroom testimony and that they are often counterintuitive. Science can and should inform judicial processes to improve the accuracy and assessment of eyewitness accounts.

We are seeing some small steps in this direction, but our courts still have a long way to go to better ensure that innocent people are not punished because of flaws in this very influential type of evidence. Error-Prone IDs A number of factors can reduce the accuracy of eyewitness identifications. Here are some of them:. Already a subscriber? Sign in. Thanks for reading Scientific American.

Create your free account or Sign in to continue. See Subscription Options. Go Paperless with Digital. Here are some of them: Extreme witness stress at the crime scene or during the identification process. Washington, D. Department of Justice; Reconstruction of automobile destruction: An example of the interaction between language and memory. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior.

Intelligence, authority and blame conformity: Co-witness influence is moderated by the perceived competence of the information source. J Police Crim Psych. The neuroscience of memory: Implications for the courtroom. Nat Rev Neurosci.

Looking down the barrel of a gun: What do we know about the weapon focus effect? Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition. Social Psychological and Personality Science. Pers Soc Psychol Bull. A cross-race effect in metamemory: Predictions of face recognition are more accurate for members of our own race. Cross-racial misidentification: A call to action in Washington State and beyond.

Seattle University of Law Review. Eyewitness identification: Lineup instructions and the absence of the offender. Journal of Applied Psychology. Eyewitness identification procedures: Recommendations for lineups and photospreads. Law and Human Behavior. The eyewitness post identification feedback effect 15 years later: Theoretical and policy implications. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law. The new science of eyewitness memory. Psychology of Learning and Motivation. Your Privacy Rights.

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We and our partners process data to: Actively scan device characteristics for identification. I Accept Show Purposes. Table of Contents View All. Table of Contents. Wrongful Convictions.

Mistaken Identity. Can It Work? Law Enforcement's Role. Witness Factors. Racial Bias. Suspect Lineups. Elizabeth Loftus' Research on Eyewitness Memory.

The Consequences of False Memories. How False Memories Are Formed. How Stress Affects Your Memory. Understanding Implicit Bias. An Overview of Forensic Psychology. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Sign Up. What are your concerns?

Witnesses truly believe their version of events, no matter how inaccurate they may be. Finally, confirmation bias is likely at play. People notice the times when they accurately remembered some person or detail in their past, but tend to forget the times when their memory failed them.

With the prevalence of video cameras capturing most anything we do, it is easier than ever to check memories against actual recordings of events. You might ask students if they ever compared their memory of an event to an actual recording of the incident and discovered discrepancies. If so, this might reduce confirmation bias. It creates stories based on those experiences.

The stories are sometimes uncannily accurate, sometimes completely fictional, and often a mixture of the two; and they can change to suit the situation. Eyewitness testimony is a potent form of evidence for convicting the accused, but it is subject to unconscious memory distortions and biases even among the most confident of witnesses.

So memory can be remarkably accurate or remarkably inaccurate. Without objective evidence, the two are indistinguishable. How reliable is eyewitness testimony? National Science Foundation Sometimes, we can even build false recollections about people we only think we saw. How reliable is your memory?

Psychological scientist Elizabeth Loftus studies memories. A two-part 60 Minutes news story focusing on the case of Ronald Cotton and Jennifer Thompson, one of the best documented cases of false conviction. Extensive interviews with the people involved in the case as well as Elizabeth Loftus and Gary Wells.

Scientific American Mind. Website of Dr. Gary Wells , who has done extensive research on the validity of police line-ups. His website is a wealth of information, links, and videos. Eyewitness Testimony and Memory Biases. Benton, T. Eyewitness memory is still not common sense: comparing jurors, judges and law enforcement to eyewitness experts.

Applied Cognitive Psychology, 20, — Hastorf, A. They saw a game; a case study. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 49 1 , Loftus, E. Zaragoza, M. Misinformation Effects and the Suggestibility of Eyewitness Memory. Hayne Eds. Students may bring responses to class or post them online. Begin by posing the myth, shown on Slide 1 of the accompanying PowerPoint slides. Eyewitness Testimony slides. Next discuss the assignment. Have students discuss their responses.

Different people can see the same event and come away with very different memories. This is a good entry point to discuss the nature of long-term memory and how it is both constructive at encoding and reconstructive at retrieval.

The instructor can discuss work on the misinformation effect and eyewitness testimony here. Schema theory can also be discussed. Slides 5 and 6 review the myth and the reality of memory.

The goal of this day is to give an overview of how memory works. There are various ways of organizing the memory unit: historically from Ebbinghaus to current models, or focusing on a particular model such as Information processing almost 50 years out of date, but still a powerful way of organizing concepts.

This causes problems for not only the wrongfully accused, but also for the police, who may stop pursuing other leads. As well, time plays havoc with our memories. The more time that passes between the event and the retelling, the more the memory tends to change. The most reliable parts of old memories are usually those most pertinent to the person recalling them.

So the memory of other people and their appearance can change or fade. In the following video, a classroom experiment shows both the inaccuracy of eyewitness identification.

As well as how easy it is to distort witness memory:. Especially when they see something unfamiliar or under stress. Stress and fear affect our memory. To do so, it often uses information we receive later. For example, someone may not remember what an assailant looked like, but they are subconsciously open to suggestion. This effect can also happen if the subject lacks distinctive features, or if there is any obstruction to seeing them.