About the lecture

In this lecture, we think about factors impacting eye witness memory in the courtroom, focusing in particular on: (i) the three learning objectives for this course; (ii) the tendency for solicitors to use inconsistencies in eye witness statements to propose that they are an unreliable source; (iii) the four key types of eye witness statement inconsistency; (iv) some forms in which an eye witness testimony can come; (v) the assumption of legal systems typically being that variables impacting eye witness memory are commonly understood; (vi) the potentially unorthodox comparison between Freud’s reproductive theory of memory and Bartlett’s reconstructive theory of memory; (vii) Magnussen and colleagues’ findings that judges were not greatly more knowledgeable than lay people on the issues surrounding eye witness memory; (viii) a review and comparison of the store house memory metaphor and the correspondence memory metaphor; (ix) Ebbinghaus’ forgetting curve; (x) examples of system and estimator variables; (xi) some key pieces of research which have highlighted the unreliable nature of eye witness identifications.

About the lecturer

Dr Adam Charles Harvey is a lecturer in social psychology in the department of Health and Social Sciences at the University of the West of England. Dr Charles Harvey’s research interests are in verbal lie-detection via proactive psychological interviewing. Some of Dr Charles Harvey’s recent publications include ‘Applying the asymmetric information management technique to insurance claims’ (2022) and ‘The stability bias effect amongst lie-tellers: Testing the ‘miscalibration’ and ‘strategic’ hypotheses’ (in press).