6.4 Key Question

Question 1

Key Question

Answer 1

Is EWT too unreliable to trust?

Question 2

Importance

Answer 2

• Wrongful convictions
• Lack of support for wrongfully convicted

Question 3

A01

Answer 3

• Innocence project 72% of wrongful convictions were due to eyewitness misidentification
• Society will loose trust in justice system if innocent people are sent to jail
• Ronald Cotton sent to jail and did 10 years for a rape due to misidentification
• If there’s no forensic evidence then EWT is important

Question 4

A02

Answer 4

• Weapon focus (when weapon is present, less attention paid to perpetrator and other details so more likely to misidentify)
• Stress and Arousal (Yerkes-Dodson, optimum and after that if more stress then performance decreases)
• Reconstructive memory (memory isn’t a tape recorder, false info, confabulate simplify and rationalise)
• Leading questions (response bias, think they should answer in a certain way)

Question 5

AO3

Answer 5

• Johnson and Scott (weapon focus)
• Valentine and Mesout (stress and arousal)
• Bartlett (reconstructive memory)
• Lofus and Palmer (leading question) however lab experiment so less credible
• Should use objective forensics as well