Police reports following a robbery at a busy open-air food market show that eyewitness testimony remains highly fragile.
The day after the incident, several witnesses collaborated and discussed what they saw on a local community social media group. When later interviewed individually, many witnesses reported feeling intense anxiety, recalling a loud bang that they believed was an fired gunshot. They described a very tall woman wearing a long, dark leather trench coat brandishing a handgun, who fled down a side alley. A suspect was later detained.
During the subsequent trial, CCTV footage revealed that the witness testimonies were highly inaccurate. The suspect was actually of average height, wearing a light grey fleece jacket, and was holding a metal spatula she had picked up from a stall. No gun was present, and the loud bang was simply a delivery van backfiring nearby. The prosecution's case fell apart after it was revealed that police officers had used repetitive, closed-ended questions that prompted witnesses to confirm the presence of a weapon.
Evaluate how suggestions for improving police interviewing (such as the Cognitive Interview) could be used to enhance the accuracy of eyewitness testimonies in relation to this incident.
163 exam-style questions on OCR A Level Psychology Memory, covering Loftus and Palmer (1974): Eyewitness testimony and Grant et al. (1998): Context-dependent memory. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.