Eyewitness memories are regarded as crucial sources of information when investigating a criminal offense. Besides the criminal investigation, eyewitness memories also help in the court's decision-making process. However, the ineffectiveness of eyewitness evidence remains a significant area of consideration for research. As illustrated by the author, "Eyewitness evidence has often been found to be unreliable and constitutes a major contributing factor behind wrongful convictions" (Gustafsson, Lindholm, & Jönsson, 2019). In some cases, the lack of accuracy results from the witness's deliberate failure to tell the truth. However, in most circumstances, a witness might desire to provide an accurate account of affairs but remembers the events incorrectly. The reliability of eyewitness testimony is often affected by memory accuracy. Researchers have performed numerous studies that have shown the weaknesses of eyewitness memory as a testimony. Equally, several strategies exist that could strengthen the accuracy and quality of the evidence.
There is a general argument emphasizing that eye witness testimony is unreliable and should not be accepted as the correct state of affairs. Researchers believe that the error rates are high even among the confident group of witnesses. In one study, eyewitnesses performed positive identifications, and it emerged that 40% of them were mistaken. However, about 90% to 100% of the witnesses had declared themselves confident with their identifications (Wixted, Mickes, & Fisher, 2018). Therefore, the research outcome's general implication is that the confident judgments are not an indication of memory strength. The human memory does not work in the same way as a video camera. The stories in the memory are created based on an individual's experiences (Chapter 7 & 8). In some cases, the stories can be accurate, while in others, they can be fictional (Gustafsson et al., 2019). However, in some, the memories fall between reality and fiction. Despite its potency, eye witness testimony is subject to biases and distortions from the unconscious.
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The malleability of human memory is evidence often given by researchers to discredit the reliability of eyewitness testimony. The human memory is prone to errors and biases that could eventually result in misinformation (Chapter 7 & 8). For instance, individuals can easily forget what happened or mix up information regarding time and place. Experiments have also shown that human memory is also affected by external forces such as leading questions and misinterpretation of events (Wixted et al., 2019). Based on the questions they ask, police or prosecutors can influence the eyewitnesses' memories and responses. The malleability of human memory means that it can change depending on the prevailing circumstances. Essentially, this makes it unreliable in the criminal justice dispensation (Gustafsson et al., 2019). There is a general acceptance that eyewitness memory is also reliable when contaminations are prevented and proper testing procedures are performed.
Based on the inherent weaknesses of eyewitness memories, researchers have provided several fundamental recommendations regarding how to improve the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. First, stakeholders in the criminal justice system must dissociate confidence reporting from memory accuracy (Wixted et al., 2019). The two do not have a linear correlation. Secondly, the human memory suffers from immense malleability and the effects of repressed thoughts. Therefore, leading questions can easily determine how an individual provide their responses to the question. Elizabeth Loftus conducted several studies on human cognitive abilities that showed how questions could influence response received. The advent of DNA testing has also helped criminologists understand the fundamental weaknesses of convicting people based on evidence from human memory (Gustafsson et al., 2019). Therefore, standardization in question remains the most significant option in preventing the inaccuracies of eyewitnesses.
References
Chapter 7 & 8 - Long-Term Memory: Encoding, Retrieval, and Consolidation.
Gustafsson, P. U., Lindholm, T., & Jönsson, F. U. (2019). Predicting accuracy in eyewitness testimonies with memory retrieval effort and confidence. Frontiers in Psychology , 10 , 703.
Wixted, J. T., Mickes, L., & Fisher, R. P. (2018). Rethinking the reliability of eyewitness memory. Perspectives on Psychological Science , 13 (3), 324-335.
