reliability of eye-witness accounts

This whole paragraph seems to miss the point. This is talking about the reliability of a particular witness. That is not the point.The point is that all eye witness testimony is suspect. It doesn't matter the reputation of the witness, the motive, his proximately, how long or anything else about the witness. If you are asking those questions then you don't understand the issue that is bein raised here. We have only in the last decade or two had the information necessary to realize how easily a memory may be twisted or created.

I think that if you ask, today, the majority of people (9/10+ ) to give an analogy to memory they will give something back that is "video tape" like. In other words, almost everyone still thinks that our memories are a "record" that they "rewatch" when remembering.They would have the same questions about honesty, seeing conditions and such that you mentioned. These questions have nothing to do with the fundamental nature and reliability of memories. They are NOT like almost all of us think they are.This message has been edited by NosyNed, 03-04-2005 14:04 AM