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The Myth of Repressed Memory: False Memories and Allegations of Sexual Abuse by Elizabeth Loftus  (17)  $11.16

True Witness: Cops, Courts, Science, and the Battle against Misidentification by James M. Doyle  (7)  $18.21

The Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets and Remembers by Daniel L. Schacter  (36)  $10.17

Jeopardy in the Courtroom: A Scientific Analysis of Children's Testimony by Stephen J. Ceci  (4)  $16.47

Mistaken Identification: The Eyewitness, Psychology and the Law by Brian L. Cutler $37.80

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Review
New York Times Book Review : An important book about a critical question.

Times Higher Education Supplement : Loftus is a quiet, sincere, and reliable guide to this important research and its applications.

Product Description

Every year hundreds of defendants are convicted on little more than the say-so of a fellow citizen. Although psychologists have suspected for decades that an eyewitness can be highly unreliable, new evidence leaves no doubt that juries vastly overestimate the credibility of eyewitness accounts. It is a problem that the courts have yet to solve or face squarely.

In Eyewitness Testimony, Elizabeth Loftus makes the psychological case against the eyewitness. Beginning with the basics of eyewitness fallibility, such as poor viewing conditions, brief exposure, and stress, Loftus moves to more subtle factors, such as expectations, biases, and personal stereotypes, all of which can intervene to create erroneous reports. Loftus also shows that eyewitness memory is chronically inaccurate in surprising ways. An ingenious series of experiments reveals that memory can be radically altered by the way an eyewitness is questioned after the fact. New memories can be implanted and old ones unconsciously altered under interrogation.

These results have important implications for court reform, police interrogation methods, defense strategy, and many other aspects of criminal and civil procedure. Eyewitness Testimony is a powerful book that should be required reading for trial lawyers, social psychologists, and anyone who considers the chilling prospect of confronting an eyewitness accusation in a court of law.

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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
guilt tape, temporary biases, filler activity, eyewitness ability, postevent information, expert psychological testimony, unconscious transference, retention stage, functional size, weapon focus, eyewitness identification, yield sign, retention interval, broken headlight, incidental character, salient items, forgetting curve Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Supreme Court, United States, New York, Los Angeles, Mary Smith, Mary Lou, Charles Clark, Dick Kazmaier, Gerald Martin, Harry Cashin, Joseph Melville, North Carolina, Robert Thomas, Wilder Penfield New!
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