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To what extent has research shown eyewitness testimony to be inaccurate? Eyewitness testimony is the evidence provided in court by a person who witnessed a crime, with a view to identifying the perpetrator. The accuracy of eyewitness recall may be affected during initial encoding, subsequent storage and eventual retrieval. There are three stages of 'eyewitness memory'; encoding, retention and retrieval. Throughout these stages the memory is distorted, lost, modified, interfered with and reconstructed. Elizabeth Loftus has conducted many studies concerning eye witness testimony - one in which she worked with Palmer (1974) to see if leading questions distort the eyewitness's immediate recall. A leading question is a question that 'either by its form or content, suggests to the witness what answer is desired or leads him to the desired answer'. After being shown films of traffic accidents, students were asked one critical question: 'About how fast were the cars going when they...

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