3/04/07 (VA):
Older Witnesses Not So Reliable, Says Study
|
|
Older adults are likelier than their young counterparts to make mistakes in memory, and are also more likely to insist that they are right, a University of Virginia study suggests. Researchers say the study, "I Misremember It Well: Why Older Adults are Unreliable Eyewitnesses," could have further implications when it comes to reliability of witnesses in courts.
The study was published in the Psychonomic Bulletin & Review and has been stirring debate across the country.
Chad Dodson, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, found that people between 60 and 80 years old taking part in the research were "alarmingly" likely to commit errors when details were suggested to them and they were the most confident about their responses.
Meanwhile, when college-age study participants were uncertain about the accuracy of their responses, they were more likely to commit errors. All participants watched a five-minute video clip re-enacting a burglary and police chase. They were then asked 24 yes or no questions about what they had seen.
Eight of the questions referred to details that never actually happened, including suggesting the presence of a non-existent gun.
Studies in recent years have suggested the general unreliability of some eyewitness testimony and cross-racial eyewitness accounts, but Dodson and graduate student Lacy Krueger focused on the age of witnesses. "There are potentially significant practical implications to these results as confident but mistaken eyewitness testimony may be the largest cause of wrongful convictions in the United States," Dodson said in a news release. "Given that older adults will constitute an increasing proportion of the U.S. population, there may be a corresponding increase in the occurrence of wrongful convictions based on the testimony of highly confident but mistaken eyewitnesses."
Dodson said the high confidence rate in the mistaken older adults might come from the detail they think they remember.
"Because the detail seems sharp," he said, "they are highly confident that they are correct in their recollection, even when the recollection has been suggested to them, rather than actually witnessed."
But UVA law professor Thomas Hafemeister cautioned against drawing conclusions about an entire group.
"There is a certain amount of ageism in society," Hafemeister said. "We tend to make conclusions about individuals just based on their age."
Hafemeister, director of legal studies at the Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy, said there are already checks on witness reliability within the legal system.
First, he said, there is the oath taken by all witnesses testifying in court, and second, courts do limit unreliable testimony by allowing witnesses, such as young children, to be questioned to ascertain their reliability. There is a presumption of capacity when it comes to courtroom witnesses, Hafemeister said, adding that it is unlikely that any study would prompt a requirement in courts to question older witnesses who take the stand to determine their reliability.
In high-stakes cases on which eyewitness testimony is relied, both sides of a case can bring in expert witnesses to talk about the general unreliability of onlookers, Hafemeister said.
"We all have the tendency to misremember things, especially under stress," he said. "Memories are inherently tricky."
© X-Pro 2007
|
|
