Testing the Accuracy of Eyewitness Testimony, Essay Example

In any particular case, no matter how low-grade nor high-grade it is when it comes to the limits of the law, there is an essential need for the existence of witnesses to prove the occurrence of a particular situation. With the existence of witnesses, the assumption of the conditions that occurred in line with the situation becomes easier to be patched to gather to formulate the complete story that happened in consideration with the incident being resolved. However, there is something that makes the assumptions and narratives of eye witnesses somewhat faulty, human nature. The element of human mistake often involves the condition by which the memory of human individuals could be subjected to alteration through time. This is when imagination mixes with factual memory thus creating a new fabricated story.

The capacity of the human mind to store information in the exact detail as an incident happened could be altered through the existence of several factors such as time, beliefs, experiences, personal understanding of the occurrence and the possibility of incurring pressure from the other side of the party that hopes to be covered from the crime. These faulty areas that define the structure of eye-witness testimony makes the said aspect on case hearings rather less reliable than actual times found as solid evidence to a crime or a particular case that is being defined.

Learning through the aspect of human psychology, it could be realized that this fault creates a great impact on how a particular case would turn out under tedious hearing. This is the reason why it is very important that eye-witness testimonies are tested for accuracy and reliability before they are actually used as evidences to the examination of any case. Nevertheless, even though the said type of testimony is considered weak, it is still accepted as a valid evidence especially if it is presented along with solid evidences that supports the story that is being presented.

References:

Bartlett, F.C. (1932). Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. 213.

Laub, Cindy, & Bornstein, Brian H. (2008) “Juries and Eyewitnesses“. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE Publications.

Tuckey, Michelle Rae, and Neil Brewer. “How Schemas Affect Eyewitness Memory Over Repeated Retrieval Attempts.” Applied Cognitive Psychology 17.7 (2003): 785-800.