The reliability of eyewitness testimony has become a...

The reliability of eyewitness testimony has become a popular research topic in applied and social psychology since Loftus and Palmer’s study in 1974 (see Steblay, 1997; Wright Loftus, 1998; Deffenbacher, Bornstein, Penrod, McGorty, for reviews). Participants viewed videos or slides of traffic accidents (Loftus Palmer, 1974) or a criminal act (Roediger, Jacoby, McDermott, 1996; Cutler, Penrod, Martens, 1987) and afterwards were asked several questions about what they had just seen. The manipulation in studies was that the researchers did not ask the same question to all participant, but instead changed the wording of one critical detail in the question. In Loftus and Palmer’s study, some of the subjects were asked â€Å"About how fast†¦show more content†¦However, â€Å"discussion among victims or witnesses to a crime is difficult, if not impossible to prevent’’ (Yarmey, 1992, p. 252). The concern that witnesses might talk to each other has been confirmed by a survey conducted in Australia (Paterson Kemp, 2006). They found that if the respondent had witnessed a serious event and there was a co-witness present, 86% of the respondents had discussed the witnessed event together, of which 63% percent had done so immediately after the witnessed event. In another survey by Paterson and Kemp (2005), police officers confirmed the observation that co-witnesses frequently discuss the witnessed event together, and also indicated that such discussions are difficult to prevent. Discussion between eyewitnesses seems inevitable, and several researchers have emphasized the negative effects of discussion on group memory, such as memory distortion, (Basden, Basden, Bryner, Thomas 1997; Weldon, Bellinger, 1997), or memory conformity (Wright Schwartz, 2008; French, Garry, Mori, 2008) that occurs due to the group process. Whereas the first refers to the effect that an individual’s memory is altered by new information, the secon d refers to the phenomenon of someone’s memory being altered as a result of the influence of other people’s memories On the other hand, little research has been conducted regarding the possible positive effects of discussion on eyewitness memory recall.Show MoreRelatedCatherine Malasa2300 Words   |  10 PagesCHRESO UNIVERSITY DISTANCE EDUCATION NAME OF SCHOOL: FACULTY OFBUSINESS, HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT: SOCIAL SCIENCES COMPUTER NO: PROGRAM: BARCHELAR of SCIENCE IN ECONOMICS COURSE CODE: PSY 501 LECTURER: SIKABELE CHIKUBA STUDENT: CATHERINE MALASA SEMESTER: 1ST SEMESTER 1ST YEAR ASSIGNMENT: NO 1 DUE DATE:Read MoreLogical Reasoning189930 Words   |  760 Pagesby Wadsworth Publishing Company, Belmont, California USA in 1993 with ISBN number 0-534-17688-7. When Wadsworth decided no longer to print the book, they returned their publishing rights to the original author, Bradley Dowden. The current version has been significantly revised. If you would like to suggest changes to the text, the author would appreciate your writing to him at dowden@csus.edu. iv Praise Comments on the earlier 1993 edition, published by Wadsworth Publishing Company, which