01.11.2015 |
magazine issue | 11/2015
Seeing and Believing: Common Courtroom Myths in Eyewitness Memory
![US courtroom - Carol M. Highsmith [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons US courtroom - Carol M. Highsmith [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://in-mind.org/sites/default/files/styles/article_image/public/field/image/courtroom_united_states_courthouse_davenport_iowa.jpg?itok=WW7WpHSy)
keywords:
eyewitness identification / memory / myths / common sense
Seeing and Believing: Common Courtroom Myths in Eyewitness Memory
When it comes to understanding eyewitness memory, people’s commonsense views are sometimes consistent with contemporary scientific knowledge – but sometimes they are dangerously adrift. This article aims to unravel some of the common myths that appear in the courts, in the news, and in the awareness of the public. On a mid-summer evening in 1982, in a small town in the southern U.S., 24-year-old Susan1 was walking home, when a man grabbed her, threatened her with a gun, forced her... / more