Abstract
This chapter focuses on stress and eyewitness accuracy, eyewitness identification, interviewing techniques, and children's eyewitness memory. The chapter presents a brief overview of basic memory processes. The accuracy of eyewitness testimony is determined by a complex interaction of perception, memory, and socio-emotional factors. Memory is typically divided into three stages: encoding, retention, and retrieval. In situations relevant to eyewitness testimony, encoding happens when a victim experiences or a bystander witnesses a criminal act. Eyewitness accuracy is constrained first by the conditions under which information was encoded. Many variables influence the probability that an event was properly encoded, such as observation conditions and exposure duration. There exists a consensus that, given the reconstructive nature of memory, stored information may undergo processes of change during the retention phase. Important for eyewitness testimony is the notion of retroactive interference. Because of the nature of criminal acts, victims and bystanders often experience elevated levels of stress during a crime. Eyewitness identification, one of the most direct kinds of evidence of guilt, links the suspect and the crime specifically.
Published Version
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