COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

Eyewitness Testimony and Leading Questions

[Institution Name]

Eyewitness Testimony and Leading Questions

Literature Review

Loftus, F. E. (1975), “Leading Questions and the Eyewitness Report”, University of Washington. Academia Press Inc.

Memory is an individual's capacity to store, retain and retrieve information, and Cognitive psychology is one of the complex fields of analysis. Many studies are being conducted since ages to understand the function of memory to rationalize the events from past being a part of any present situation. Better memory is a result of strong cognitive ability.

The literature begins with the discussion of the phenomenon of leading questions distorting the memory of a witness and resulting in a different response every time the question is asked with a slight change. The study demonstrates two other contexts that also play a significant role in the events of retrieving memory of a witness are 'Past Personal Experience' and 'Recently Witnessed Events'. Past personal experiences are a part of the long term memory, and false presuppositions are drawn for witnessing events. In the case, of recently witnessed events presuppositions are made by the witness for events postulating objects that did exist in the situation a person is witnessing.

Memory is a crucial element in the study of cognitive psychology and theorists have been experimenting and developing hypothesis that supports the forces that derives memory functions. Forms of memory are socially very important as an individual needs to retrieve and store information every other second in his life. Law concerning events, investigations and other requirement s of the same nature needs complete and accurate use of memory. Therefore, continuous studies are being held in this concern.

The study is based on four experiments that were used to identify the reason of how information, that are leading questions, supplied soon after an event can affect the memory of an eye witness. ...