Cross-Examination on the Accuracy of Adult Eyewitness

¶ … cross-examination on the accuracy of adult eyewitness testimony" by Tim Valentine and Katie Maras

"The effects of mood on the accuracy of eyewitness memory: affective influences on susceptibility to misinformation" by Joseph P. Forgas, Simon M. Laham and Patrick T. Vargas

The current assignment looks at two separate articles, written by different authors and six years apart, each dealing with the quality and reliability of eyewitness testimonies. The first article assesses this topic from the standpoint of cross-examination, whereas the second, based on the mood of the witness. The table below summarizes the viewpoints of the two articles.

Forgas, Laham and Vargas (2005)

Valentine and Maras (2011)

Purpose of study

Investigate the impact of mood changes on the accuracy of eye witness memories

Investigate the impact of cross-examination upon the quality of eyewitness testimonies

Hypotheses

Eyewitnesses who are in a positive mood tend to offer inaccurate testimonies, whereas eyewitnesses in a negative mood tend to offer more accurate testimonies

Eyewitnesses tend top change their testimonies of witnessed events when they are cross-examined

Participants

96 students, out of which 54 were female and 42 were male

22 students, out of which 18 were female and 4 were male

Materials

Two A4 size models, one of a wedding -- the positive event -- and one of a car crash -- the negative event.

A 90 minute video of a young girl in a library, an assumed crime, with controlled details viewed by participants

Procedure

One 3 x 2 experiment design with affects of happy, sad and control to provide information and assess it. Second and third experiments assessed the meta-cognitive awareness and the confidence of participants in their eyewitnesses reports.

After watching the video, the participants were asked a series of questions and they were asked to complete a questionnaire. After another four weeks, they were asked the questions again to assess any changes in testimonies.

Results

Eyewitnesses in a more positive mood tented to give misleading information, by including information they received after the event.

The participants changed their testimonies under cross-examination. They also gave lesser quality testimonies when there were more witnesses, then when only one individual had witnessed the event.

Limitations

The accuracy of the testimonies could have been influenced by other elements, such as identity, status or influence of the misleader, none of which were considered. Also, the mood of the witness was not assessed externally, but taken as given by the witness, which might also be inaccurate.

The findings were generated after participants viewed a video, but their testimonies might be more accurate when real life events are involved. In real life, the personal traits of the eyewitnesses and the interviewers could change the outcome.

Conclusions

Mood has an impact on the testimonies given.

Cross-examination tends of generate changes in the testimonies given.

The two articles hereby summarized assess the general quality of given testimonies under the influence of the mood of the witness and the cross-examination and conclude that eye-witnessed reports are highly unreliable since they are biased. On the one hand, testimonies can be influenced by the mood of the witness, with people in a positive mood being more likely to offer altered accounts of witnessed events. Then, testimonies can also be of a poor quality due to the precess by which the witnesses are cross-examined, with witnesses tending to change their accounts of both correctly and incorrectly reported events.