Eyewitness testimony research: Current knowledge and emergent controversies

Psychological research on eyewitness testimony has flourished over the last decade and there are now a number of findings that appear relevant to police and courts. We review some of the major eyewitness research findings regarding such things as the relationship between accuracy and confidence, the identification of perpetrators from lineups, and the influence of misleading information on eyewitness memory and reports. Next, we discuss a controversy over the application of eyewitness research in the courtroom, namely expert testimony. The debate regarding expert testimony has sharpened researchers' conceptions of generalization problems and the quality of jurors' knowledge about eyewitness accuracy, as well as raising concerns about the proper role of experimental psychologists in the legal system. We propose that the confusion and controversy over expert testimony stems largely from the fact that expert testimony represents an attempt to provide services to the judicial phase, rather than the evidence-production phase, of the fact-finding process. EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY RESEARCH: CURRENT KNOWLEDGE AND EMERGENT CONTROVERSIES Courtroom testimony by an eyewitness is preceded by a varied and dynamic set of psychological processes. Given the complex interaction of perception, memory, judgement, social influence, and communication processes that lead up to an eyewitness's story of what happened, it should hardly be surprising that such testimony often is a faulty version of the original event. Nevertheless, courts of law have relied heavily on eyewitness testimony and they will continue to do so. What do psychologists know about eyewitness testimony that could aid its understanding, prediction, and control? In this article we discuss several of the major findings in eyewitness-testimony research in recent years. Included is a Requests for reprints should be addressed to Gary L. Wells, Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6G 2E9. 'Canadian readers might be interested in the fact that Canadian-based research programmes have played a disproportionately large role in the eyewitness literature. Active eyewitness research programmes exist at the Universities of Alberta, British Columbia, Calgary, Guelph, Lethbridge, and Queen's University and each of these research programmes has received major research grants. The first research conference devoted entirely to eyewitness testimony was held in Canada and two of the five major books on eyewitness testimony involved Canadian authors (i.e., Wells & Loftus, 1984; Yarmey, 1979). Finally, the most comprehensive set of guidelines for police on eyewitness testimony was produced by the Law Reform Commission of Canada, based primarily on consultation with Canadian researchers (Brooks, 1983). CANAD. J. BEHAV. SCI./REV. CANAD. SCI. COMP. 19(4), 1987