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2020/21 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

PSYC3519 The Psychology of Eyewitness Testimony

15 creditsClass Size: 71

Module manager: Dr Charity Brown
Email: psccbr@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2020/21

Pre-requisite qualifications

Successful completion of all pass for progression modules in Level 2 of:
BSc Psychology or MPsyc, BSc Advanced Psychology (and its International and Industrial variants)

This module is not approved as a discovery module

Objectives

Students will specialise in conceptual and theoretical issues relating to 'The Psychology of Eyewitness Testimony'.

Learning outcomes
On completion of this module students are expected to be able to:
- demonstrate in-depth understanding of major theoretical developments in memory for events, and face recognition that have attempted to explain the reliability of eyewitness testimony and eyewitness identification;
- demonstrate in-depth understanding of the various methodologies used in eyewitness research and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses;
- critically discuss the role of social and cognitive factors in determining the reliability of eyewitness testimony and eyewitness identification;
- critically discuss how empirical psychology can inform the processes and practices used by the police and courts to obtain and evaluate eyewitness testimony.

Skills outcomes
- Students will have the opportunity to develop skills in the selection, evaluation and application of published research in the area of eyewitness testimony.
- Students will gain practice in the application of theory to practical real world issues.


Syllabus

The reliability of eyewitness testimony remains a primary concern for the criminal justice system. Mistaken eyewitness testimony can lead to miscarriages of justice. For some time eyewitness memory researchers have investigated the conditions under which eyewitness testimony may be mistaken and have successfully promoted safeguards, adopted by the police, to reduce the likelihood of eyewitness error. For example, eyewitness memory researchers have contributed to the development of new procedures for interviewing witnesses and eliciting identification evidence. This module considers a number of issues surrounding the accuracy of eyewitness recall and identification. The following topics will be covered:

Historical and Legal Background to eyewitness testimony.
Eyewitness Memory
Suggestibility in Eyewitness Testimony
Interviewing Eyewitnesses
False Testimony: Lying and Lie Detection
Eyewitness Identification and the criminal justice system
Interviewing for face identification
Constructing facial composites
Factors affecting eyewitness identification: systems and estimator variables

Teaching methods

Delivery typeNumberLength hoursStudent hours
Lecture111.5016.50
Private study hours133.50
Total Contact hours16.50
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)150.00

Private study

Students will have 133.5 private study hours. It is envisaged that this time will be spent as follows:
Reading for each lecture: 11 x 4 hours = 44 hours
Independent literature searches and reading 42.5 hours
Preparation for online formative assessment 7 hours
Revision and practice exam questions 40 hours

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

In week 8, students (individually) post a 150 word summary and evaluation of a journal article based on a given topic of eyewitness memory.

Methods of assessment


Coursework
Assessment typeNotes% of formal assessment
-------------------------Online posting task (150 word submission)0.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)0.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated


Exams
Exam typeExam duration% of formal assessment
Online Time-Limited assessment2 hr 00 mins100.00
Total percentage (Assessment Exams)100.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 10/08/2020 08:44:49

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