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Psychological Phenomena

Eyewitness Memory

Memory Biases and Effects

Eyewitness memory is a person's episodic memory for a crime or other witnessed dramatic event, including memory for a perpetrator's face. Eyewitness testimony is often relied upon in the judicial system, but its accuracy is sometimes questioned, because many factors acting during the encoding and retrieval of the witnessed event can adversely affect how the memory is created and maintained; researchers have found evidence that eyewitness memory is fallible.

Facts
Core Claim
Eyewitness memory is a person's episodic memory for a crime or other witnessed dramatic event. 1
Classification
Type of Phenomenon
Cognitive Phenomenon 1
Connections

Associated With

Elizabeth Loftus, Psychologists

Loftus's eyewitness memory research demonstrated that post-event information can distort eyewitness recollection.

In Branch

Sources
1. Eyewitness memory (Wikipedia)
  • Lead section, first sentence
    Eyewitness memory is a person's episodic memory for a crime or other witnessed dramatic event.
  • lead section, phenomenon-kind classification
    Eyewitness testimony is often relied upon in the judicial system.
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