Abstract
Inattentional blindness (IB) has been a confounding phenomenon of the failures of visual awareness and memory for decades, leaving researchers to debate the extent to which individuals experience the inability to see the unattended. The present study examined the relationship between the effects of IB and expert testimony on the credibility of witnesses in the courtroom. Results indicate that regardless of the presence of expert testimony, the witness who saw the crime was rated significantly more credible than the witness who experienced IB. The presence of an expert witness did not significantly affect the credibility of the witness who experienced IB. Through the introduction of expert testimony, the study could further investigate …show more content…
Accuracy, confidence and task type were investigated in a study conducted by Rivardo, Brown, Rodgers, Maurer, Camaione, Minjock, and Gowen (2011). They analysed the relationship between IB, attentional set, information type and expectancy conditions by having participants complete tasks whilst viewing an audio-visual of a food court. Through their laboratory study, Rivardo et al. (2011) could accurately examine eyewitness retention through the varying conditions and conclude under what task conditions participants became more likely to experience IB; therefore, giving inaccurate and misinformed reports of the staged crime. Whilst thorough, the study only examines bystander observational errors, drawing no direct comparisons to whether these findings generalise to a court case. An exemplar would be Melinder and Magnussen’s (2015) study vis-à-vis psychologists and psychiatrists providing expert testimony and accounting for eyewitness memory. There were confounding results where their hypothesis was not supported. Active expert witnesses performed no better on the memory questionnaire than general practitioners. The study concluded that expert testimony provided minimal forensic advantage for memory factors. It is important to note that IB was not exclusively examined as a factor of eyewitness memory nor were there the witnesses who did not experience
Inattentional blindness (IB) has been a confounding phenomenon of the failures of visual awareness and memory for decades, leaving researchers to debate the extent to which individuals experience the inability to see the unattended. The present study examined the relationship between the effects of IB and expert testimony on the credibility of witnesses in the courtroom. Results indicate that regardless of the presence of expert testimony, the witness who saw the crime was rated significantly more credible than the witness who experienced IB. The presence of an expert witness did not significantly affect the credibility of the witness who experienced IB. Through the introduction of expert testimony, the study could further investigate …show more content…
Accuracy, confidence and task type were investigated in a study conducted by Rivardo, Brown, Rodgers, Maurer, Camaione, Minjock, and Gowen (2011). They analysed the relationship between IB, attentional set, information type and expectancy conditions by having participants complete tasks whilst viewing an audio-visual of a food court. Through their laboratory study, Rivardo et al. (2011) could accurately examine eyewitness retention through the varying conditions and conclude under what task conditions participants became more likely to experience IB; therefore, giving inaccurate and misinformed reports of the staged crime. Whilst thorough, the study only examines bystander observational errors, drawing no direct comparisons to whether these findings generalise to a court case. An exemplar would be Melinder and Magnussen’s (2015) study vis-à-vis psychologists and psychiatrists providing expert testimony and accounting for eyewitness memory. There were confounding results where their hypothesis was not supported. Active expert witnesses performed no better on the memory questionnaire than general practitioners. The study concluded that expert testimony provided minimal forensic advantage for memory factors. It is important to note that IB was not exclusively examined as a factor of eyewitness memory nor were there the witnesses who did not experience