PSY328H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Eyewitness Identification, Voir Dire, Cognitive Dissonance
Document Summary
Construction and reconstructing eyewitness memories: there are 7 specific biases that influence eyewitness memories; Cross-racial identification: cross-race accuracy is worse than within-race accuracy. Iow; it is harder for people to recognize the faces of people outside their racial group = cross-race effect. Stress and weapon focus: high-stress impairs memory and thus reduces the rate of correct identification, weapon focus effect: if eyewitness see the perpetrator holding a gun or a knife, their ability to recognize the assailant is impaired. Unconscious transference: unconscious transference: an eyewitness"s misidentification of an innocent bystander for a criminal perpetrator because of the witness"s exposure to the bystander in another context. When the eyewitness is a child: the memory of children seems to be especially negatively impacted by a stress-inducing interview style. Blind lineup administrators: the person who conducts the lineup or photo spread should not be aware of which member the lineup or photo spread is the suspect.
