Abstract
Eyewitness testimony has as long history in the court system, and is very persuasive to juries. Jurors are hard pressed to ignore a witness' assertion of a perpetrator's identity. However, the juror's perception of eyewitness testimony is problematic as it has been documented as inaccurate and unreliable in numerous experiments. With the advent of DNA testing and efforts such as The Innocence Project, it has become apparent that faulty eyewitness accounts are central to many wrongful convictions. The intent of this thesis was to explore how law enforcement can facilitate more accurate eyewitness accounts via their interview process. Research suggests that a key problem in the current interviewing system is "post-event information," or outside information introduced by leading questions, exposure to police conversations or other witnesses' accounts. This information can contaminate a witness's memories of events and lead them to report things they did not see. The current experiment explores the effects of 1) warning and educating witnesses about suggestibility and 2) interviewing with leading or open-ended questions. Accuracy scores were then compared for each condition. The hope was to gain insight into methods for improving accurate recall of events and reducing memory contamination from "post-event information."
Notes
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Thesis Completion
2011
Semester
Fall
Advisor
Chin, Matthew
Degree
Bachelor of Science (B.S.)
College
College of Sciences
Degree Program
Psychology
Subjects
Dissertations, Academic -- Sciences;Sciences -- Dissertations, Academic
Format
Identifier
CFH0004116
Language
English
Access Status
Open Access
Length of Campus-only Access
None
Document Type
Honors in the Major Thesis
Recommended Citation
Schachter, Ashley M., "Improving eyewitness testimony methods for more accurate recall of events" (2011). HIM 1990-2015. 1238.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/honorstheses1990-2015/1238