A report by the Justice Reform Commission analyzed how jurors evaluate eyewitness testimony. The commission highlighted two key statistics from their recent survey of prospective jurors and experts:
- 74% of prospective jurors believed that "human memory works like a video camera, recording events exactly as they unfold so they can be played back later." In contrast, only 1% of cognitive psychologists agreed with this statement.
- 62% of prospective jurors believed that "if a witness is extremely confident when testifying on the stand, their recollection of the event is almost certainly accurate." However, 95% of memory researchers stated that confidence does not reliably correlate with accuracy, as post-event details can artificially inflate a witness's confidence.
