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(c) "Eye witness testimony differs from many other aspects of memory in that accuracy is of much greater importance." Consider what psychological research has told us about the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. (18 marks) L and P = Loftus and Palmer Pps = Participants EWT = Eyewitness testimony Despite the considerable importance juror's place on EWT, psychological research has shown that EWT tends to be unreliable. This unreliability can be explained in terms of the reconstructive nature of memory (schema theory). Introduced by Bartlett (1932), reconstructive memory refers to the extent to which memory is distorted or otherwise modified (reconstructed) by experience. In practice this means that instead of storing an exact replica of the episode they are witnessing, eyewitnesses may combine the initial stimulus with elements of their existing knowledge and experience (or schema) to form a reconstructed memory resulting in an inaccurate EWT account. Reconstruction is not the only source of distortion in...

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