1. Ch 15: Social Psych in Court
Part 2: Apr. 25, 2014

2. The case of Jennifer Thompson’s assault
Details of her case:
How did eyewitness memory come into play?
How did DNA testing come into play?

3. Memory Research on memory: 3 important stages 1) Acquisition
Impact of stress on memory acquisition
Social perception & the unexpected -
Impact of weapons
Impact of race - Own-race bias

4. 2) Storage: Post-event info may be incorporated…
Loaded questions & the misinformation effect:
Loftus’ research:
What is the misinformation effect?
Car accident experiment –
Wording experiment (‘hit’ vs. ‘smashed’)

5. 3) Retrieval – Lineup format: (Gary Wells’ research):
How to best construct lineups?
Similarity of lineup to witness description –
Sequential or simultaneous lineups?
Instructions to eyewitnesses?
What best predicts eyewitness accuracy?