When Eyewitnesses Misremember

Abstract

Eyewitness testimony is a critical component of U.S. jurisprudence in both civil and criminal proceedings. Witnesses are relied on to recount key events, behaviors, and circumstances that contribute to findings of fact surrounding alleged criminal acts or circumstances that are the subject of civil dispute. The contribution of eyewitness testimony depends critically on the reliability of the witnesses’ memory of the events they are describing. Unfortunately, there are significant limits of human episodic memory that may degrade or distort these memories. Compounding this challenge is the poor metacognitive awareness of memory’s limitations. Eyewitnesses may overestimate the quality of their memory in accuracy and precision. They may be unaware of the potential for false details to merge into their episodic memories of an event. Jurists are similarly unaware of the limitations of memory and may rely too heavily on eyewitness testimony when resolving cases. But acknowledging and accounting for the limitations of memory has costs. Without eyewitness testimony many cases would not be viable, so there is a societal need to tolerate these limitations in order to have a working legal system. Human factors professionals, who are testifying as investigators in the case, may be the only source through which jurors can be informed of memory’s limitations when general memory experts are not admitted to testify solely for that purpose. When performed capably, this testimony can significantly improve the outcomes of legal proceedings.