PSYC 2400 Lecture 8: Textbook Notes (CH1)
Document Summary
A brief history of forensic psychology: relatively young, was introduced in the late nineteenth century. In the early days of the field, this type of psychology was actually not even referred to as forensic psychology. Demonstrated that asking children to report everything they saw (free recall) resulted in the most accurate answers. While highly misleading questions resulted in the least accurate answers: shortl(cid:455) after bi(cid:374)et"s stud(cid:455), a ger(cid:373)a(cid:374) ps(cid:455)(cid:272)hologist (cid:374)a(cid:373)ed willia(cid:373) ster(cid:374) also began conducting studies examining the suggestibility of witnesses. The reality experiment that is now commonly used by eyewitness researchers to study eye witness recall and recognition can in fact be attributed to stern. I(cid:374) o(cid:374)e of ster(cid:374)"s first e(cid:454)peri(cid:373)e(cid:374)ts i(cid:374) (cid:1005)9(cid:1004)(cid:1005), the s(cid:272)e(cid:374)ario i(cid:374)(cid:448)ol(cid:448)ed t(cid:449)o students arguing in a class room. The scenario ended with one of the stude(cid:374)ts pulli(cid:374)g a re(cid:448)ol(cid:448)er" the o(cid:271)ser(cid:448)ers (cid:449)ere the(cid:374) asked questions about the event. Stern found that the testimony participants were often incorrect.
