Eye witness testimony can be unreliable for a plethora of reasons, not the least of which include ulterior motives on the part of the individual testifying. People do not always testify to ensure that justice is served. Witness tampering can definitely affect the veracity of what eye-witnesses state when they testify, including partisanship tendencies towards sides of the issue considered in court.
From a cognitive perspective, however, there have been several studies performed that empirically validate the fact that the mind and various facets of it is not always consistent with reality. Perhaps the most tenuous aspect of cognition in regards to eye-witness testimony relates to the nature of memory. People do not always remember things correctly. Crucial details including those related to size, color, and even sequence, are extremely mutable to one's memory. Eye-witnesses, then, can actually observe an event that they are brought into court to testify about, witness or hear it correctly due to accurate sensory processing, and still...
There are a number of explanations pertaining to the cognitive process for why memory can vary according to individuals and not necessarily according to the events that they are striving to recollect. Memory is affected by several factors, one of the most eminent of which is time. In general, people tend to recollect the details of short-term memory better than those associated with long-term ones, although it is also possible for the short-term memory of individuals (due to age or perhaps substance abuse) to rapidly deteriorate as well.
Additionally, there are inherent links between emotions, cognition, and motivation that can substantially impact one's memory. Factors such as how a person was feeling at the time that they witnessed an…
