In the DNA Exoneration Cases, Eyewitness Memory Was Not the Problem: A Reply to Berkowitz and Frenda (2018) and Wade, Nash, and Lindsay (2018). (May 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wixted, John T.; Mickes, Laura; Fisher, Ronald P.
• Is Part Of: Perspectives on psychological science. Volume 13:Number 3(2018)
• Page Start: 343
• Page End: 345
• Publication Date: 2018-05
• Subjects: eyewitness identification -- confidence and accuracy -- cognitive interview; Psychology -- Periodicals; 150
• DOI: 10.1177/1745691618769859
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1745-6916

Abstract

The available real-world evidence suggests that, on an initial test, eyewitness memory is often reliable. Ironically, even the DNA exoneration cases—which generally involved nonpristine testing conditions and which are usually construed as an indictment of eyewitness memory—show how reliable an initial test of eyewitness memory can be in the real world. We endorse the use of pristine testing procedures, but their absence does not automatically imply that eyewitness memory is unreliable.