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‘Eyewitness testimony may be all the evidence that is available in a trial but it is notoriously unreliable.’ Consider what psychological research can tell us about the accuracy of eyewitness testimony.
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'Eyewitness testimony may be all the evidence that is available in a trial but it is notoriously unreliable.' Consider what psychological research can tell us about the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. Evidence given by eyewitnesses is seen as extremely valuable by jurors. Baddeley (1997) stated that 74% of suspects were convicted on evidence given by eyewitnesses alone. This would lead many to think that eyewitness testimonies are subject to little inaccuracy; however, vast research has highlighted many problems. One problem is misleading post-event information. Elizabeth Loftus, one of the main researchers into the accuracy of eyewitness testimonies, was interested as to how information provided after an event affected memory. As a cause of this intrigue, Loftus carried out a number of experiments. For example, in 1975 Lofts showed 150 participants a film of a car accident. After they had seen this video the participants were split into two groups. Each group were...
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