Eyewitness Memory In Context: Toward a Systematic Understanding of Eyewitness Evidence.

Eyewitness identification research has typically been focused either on isolated specific factors or on more broadly defined and more ecologically valid contexts that occur in more realistic but less-controlled crime simulations. However, a paucity of studies have addressed both controlled and realistic contexts, investigating specific factors systematically in context. In the present study, researchers have addressed the effects of the following circumstances on memory: stimulus complexity, gender of assailant, gender of respondent, presence of weapons, clothing and physical characteristics of assailants, peripheral sources of hazard, and seeing perpetrators in lineups. Standardized contexts were used to strengthen experimental controls. Results indicated that eyewitness memory, even under idealized conditions, was highly unreliable, both for perpetrator characteristics and for other aspects of the crime scene, including weapons and peripheral sources of hazard. These results provide important information about the elements of eyewitness testimony that are most likely to yield difficulties in both investigative and courtroom settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]