Running head: Eyewitness Testimony 1
Eyewitness Testimony
Grand Canyon University
PSY-102-0501: General Psychology
, Eyewitness Testimony 2
Introduction
Eyewitness memories are the most important information for investigations in criminal
offences (Wells &Memon& Penrod, 2006). Eyewitnesses testimonies have been the biggest way
for judge or police to have an explanation given to them on what has occurred. An eyewitness is
a person who has witnessed or is a victim of a crime and is called into the court to describe what
they saw during the crime that is under investigation. For instance, someone may be called as an
eyewitness to a robbery, or a car accident that has happened. Eyewitness testimonies are the
account of what they saw and remember happening from that crime. If a person only saw the end
result, they wouldn’t be called to be an eyewitness because they didn’t see the whole thing
happen. Eyewitness testimonies have negative and positive effects in the court room on cases.
Article 1
The first article is about how eyewitness’ have been found unreliable because one issue
that can happen is their memories get mixed together. Many people are convicted due to
inaccuracy in eyewitnesses because the judge and jury believe what the eyewitness said even if it
was not accurate(Innocence Project, 2018). Two studies were done about a fake crime to see how
their memories remembered it. In the study they interviewed everyone in the simulated crime to
see how reliable their information was. The way interviewers checked this was by pauses when
talking in the eyewitness, using words like I think, and using nonexistent words like um.
Majority of the eyewitnesses struggled to correctly say what exactly happened (Ball
&Callagham, 2001).
Article 2
In this article it talks about how eyewitness confidence can affect a criminal
investigation. Confidence us a basic act of memory reporting it determines how someone
Eyewitness Testimony
Grand Canyon University
PSY-102-0501: General Psychology
, Eyewitness Testimony 2
Introduction
Eyewitness memories are the most important information for investigations in criminal
offences (Wells &Memon& Penrod, 2006). Eyewitnesses testimonies have been the biggest way
for judge or police to have an explanation given to them on what has occurred. An eyewitness is
a person who has witnessed or is a victim of a crime and is called into the court to describe what
they saw during the crime that is under investigation. For instance, someone may be called as an
eyewitness to a robbery, or a car accident that has happened. Eyewitness testimonies are the
account of what they saw and remember happening from that crime. If a person only saw the end
result, they wouldn’t be called to be an eyewitness because they didn’t see the whole thing
happen. Eyewitness testimonies have negative and positive effects in the court room on cases.
Article 1
The first article is about how eyewitness’ have been found unreliable because one issue
that can happen is their memories get mixed together. Many people are convicted due to
inaccuracy in eyewitnesses because the judge and jury believe what the eyewitness said even if it
was not accurate(Innocence Project, 2018). Two studies were done about a fake crime to see how
their memories remembered it. In the study they interviewed everyone in the simulated crime to
see how reliable their information was. The way interviewers checked this was by pauses when
talking in the eyewitness, using words like I think, and using nonexistent words like um.
Majority of the eyewitnesses struggled to correctly say what exactly happened (Ball
&Callagham, 2001).
Article 2
In this article it talks about how eyewitness confidence can affect a criminal
investigation. Confidence us a basic act of memory reporting it determines how someone
