Eye witnesses

[Audrina]

I've started my extended essay in psychology recently, and chose the topic on how reliable eye-witness testimony . Has anyone done a similar in terms of topic and got any tips to approach it? Thanks

[blindpet]

I've started my extended essay in psychology recently, and chose the topic on how reliable eye-witness testimony . Has anyone done a similar in terms of topic and got any tips to approach it? Thanks

I haven't done it but there is tons of research you can use. For one, Murder on a Sunday Morning is an excellent video on it (you can find the link to the full video here). You would of course use Loftus & Palmer and then evaluate that with Yuille and Cutshall (1986)'s findings. There is other research that shows how unreliable we are at picking out unfamiliar faces (see notes). Humintell's blog is also a good resource on lie detection abilities of law enforcement officers. I've attached my notes from a lecture that could help get you started and you should definitely include most of those studies and more if you want an A. Also use google scholar to do additional searches for more literature.

Your approach should be to read many articles and do heavy analysis and evaluation on the studies illustrating when eye-witness testimony is reliable and when it is not taking into account sociocultural (racial profiling and stereotypes), biological (levels of serotonin inhibit risk-taking behavior and could decrease likelihood of fingering the wrong guy in a line-up) and cognitive factors (there are tons). There are exemplar extended essays on this site if you're VIP and also some here (Crane's links are dead atm).

Good Luck

Face Identification.pdf

Edited August 2, 2010 by blindpet

[Audrina]

I've started my extended essay in psychology recently, and chose the topic on how reliable eye-witness testimony . Has anyone done a similar in terms of topic and got any tips to approach it? Thanks

I haven't done it but there is tons of research you can use. For one, Murder on a Sunday Morning is an excellent video on it (you can find the link to the full video here). You would of course use Loftus & Palmer and then evaluate that with Yuille and Cutshall (1986)'s findings. There is other research that shows how unreliable we are at picking out unfamiliar faces (see notes). I've attached my notes from a lecture that could help get you started and you should definitely include most of those studies and more if you want an A. Also use google scholar to do additional searches for more literature.

Your approach should be to read many articles and do heavy analysis and evaluation on the studies illustrating when eye-witness testimony is reliable and when it is not taking into account sociocultural (racial profiling and stereotypes), biological (levels of serotonin inhibit risk-taking behavior and could decrease likelihood of fingering the wrong guy in a line-up) and cognitive factors (there are tons). There are exemplar extended essays on this site if you're VIP and also some here (Crane's links are dead atm).

Good Luck

Thanks soo much! I'm finding it really easy to find all the studies that question the reliability of eyewitness testimony, but i understand that this should be balanced out by studies that also support it? Are there any major studies that support the use of eye-witnesses?

cheers

[blindpet]

You should definitely do your best to include studies that do support the reliability of eyewitness like Yuille & Cutshall who did a real-world study (this is the most 'major' one I know of) but obviously this study has limitations as well which you must point out. However, psychologists tend to point out the problems with eyewitness testimony and propose solutions so finding studies that say eyewitness testimony is amazingly reliable will be difficult.

I found more recent Loftus stuff here and was also reminded about the weapon effect.

Have you spoken to your advisor yet btw?

[Audrina]

You should definitely do your best to include studies that do support the reliability of eyewitness like Yuille & Cutshall who did a real-world study (this is the most 'major' one I know of) but obviously this study has limitations as well which you must point out. However, psychologists tend to point out the problems with eyewitness testimony and propose solutions so finding studies that say eyewitness testimony is amazingly reliable will be difficult.

I found more recent Loftus stuff here and was also reminded about the weapon effect.

Have you spoken to your advisor yet btw?

Yer, i have, he hasnt exactly helped me though, he only teaches psychology to yr10s as a minor subject as he teaches IB english.. hence why i'm struggling abit.

[blindpet]

You should definitely do your best to include studies that do support the reliability of eyewitness like Yuille & Cutshall who did a real-world study (this is the most 'major' one I know of) but obviously this study has limitations as well which you must point out. However, psychologists tend to point out the problems with eyewitness testimony and propose solutions so finding studies that say eyewitness testimony is amazingly reliable will be difficult.

I found more recent Loftus stuff here and was also reminded about the weapon effect.

Have you spoken to your advisor yet btw?

Yer, i have, he hasnt exactly helped me though, he only teaches psychology to yr10s as a minor subject as he teaches IB english.. hence why i'm struggling abit.

Then be very very careful! You might want to choose a subject where your teacher will actually supervise you properly. Also, because the eyewitness testimony topic isn't the most original you'll have to do a very thorough job to get good marks on it. This isn't to scare you, it's just to let you know in case your supervisor or anybody else hasn't told you.