The Challenge for Forensic Memory Research: Methodolotry

Eyewitnesses memory for faces in actual criminal cases: An archival analysis of positive facial composites

“…However, the small number of case studies has been criticized as a lack of external validity in eyewitness research, emphasizing the necessity of a wide variety of methods to investigate eyewitness memory issues (Tollestrup el al. 1994;Yuille, 1993, Yuille, 2013. Real case studies allow the testing of a range of variables that would be too complex to study altogether in controlled experiments (Behrman & Davey, 2001;Horry, Halford, Brewer, Milne, & Bull, 2014;Horry, Memon, Wright, & Milne, 2012).…”

“…However, despite of these methodological issues, archival studies have been pointed out as a meritorious complementary approach in the investigation of eyewitnesses' identification accuracy (Behrman & Davey, 2001;Fahsing, Ask, & Granhag, 2004;Horry et al, 2014). The use of real case scenarios or real police files is highly needed to improve the ecological validity of eyewitnesses' memory theoretical models (Yuille, 2013).…”

Advances in Psychology and Law

“…Some authors have argued that archival studies, despite their shortcomings regarding the "ground truth", that is, knowing for certain whether an identifi cation decision is correct or not, should be consulted as complementary evidence (e.g., Sporer, 1992Sporer, , 2008Tollestrup, Turtle, & Yuille, 1994 ;Yuille, 2013 ). Of course, suspect identifi cations are not necessarily correct identifications as the innocence project well demonstrates ( www.innocenceproject.com ; for an interesting attempt to establish ground truth, see .…”

“…Another archival study by Cooper, Kennedy, Hervé, and Yuille ( 2002 ) found no differences in the amount of details recalled by sexual assault victims of prostitutes attacked with or without a weapon (even after statistically controlling for confounding effects like age of memory and number of retellings). These fi ndings and the results of other fi eld studies lead Yuille ( 2013 ) to question the value of laboratory simulations regarding the effects of stress and arousal in general and of the weapon focus studies in particular.…”

O Efeito de Carga Emocional e Intervalo De Retenção na Memória De Testemunhas Oculares

“…permite uma inspeção objetiva de respostas fisiológicas que possam modular desempenhos de memória(Hellhammer & Schubert, 2012). Adicionalmente, é importante ressaltar que o paradigma utilizado neste estudo não corresponde a uma situação estritamente naturalística (e.g., assistir vídeos vs. presenciar um crime), apesar de a utilização de métodos naturalísticos apresentar outras dificuldades metodológicas(Yuille, 2013). Também existem limitações relacionadas às medidas utilizadas para testar a memória das testemunhas oculares.…”