Key Question Flashcards
What is the Cognitive Psychology key question?
Are eye-witness testimonies too unreliable to be used in court as evidence?
What is an “eyewitness testimony”? (2 points)
The account/recall of an event or crime given to the court and jury
Relied on by juries to reach a verdict - especially when there is a lack of forensic evidence or CCTV footage in the case
What are the 4 AO1 points in your introduction for the Cog Psych key question essay?
Research from the Innocent Project in the US shows that 69% of false convictions are caused by an inaccurate EWT
The Devlin report was submitted after several cases where identity parades led to the misidentification of a suspect
The report suggested that people shouldn’t be convicted solely based on EWTs
Recent example of a wrongful conviction due to eyewitness misidentification: Ronald Cotton - wrongfully convicted of rape and imprisoned for 10 years before being lawfully exonerated due to DNA evidence
What are the wider societal/political/economic impacts involved in the Cog Psych key question? (3 points)
The judiciary system needs to be made aware of EWTS’ lack of reliability - wrong person is convicted while the true criminal, likely a threat to society, gets away with the crime
If people lose faith in the judiciary system, law and order will lose power as people can go about their lives committing crimes believing EWTs may misidentify them
Economies would suffer - the order of society would be not as secure, alongside costing the UK taxpayer £48,000 for one prisoner annually.
How does Bartlett’s theory of reconstructive memory link to the Cog Psych key question? (3 points)
(Go over Bartlett’s theory and War of the Ghosts study)
EWTs may be inaccurate, especially if they have witnessed a crime unfamiliar to them
When an eyewitness recalls an event, their schemas suggest what was supposed to have happened, and confabulation occurs
How does misinformation acceptance link to the Cog Psych key question? (3 points)
(Go over Loftus and Palmer)
EWTs can change due to misinformation, usually presented in the form of misleading questions
Can give a person an expectation and interpretation of how something took place
