Eyewitness evidence is often important in criminal cases, but false or misleading eyewitness
evidence is known to be a leading cause of wrongful convictions. One explanation for
mistakes that jurors are making when evaluating eyewitness evidence is their lack of accurate
knowledge relating to false memory. This article examines lay ...
Eyewitness evidence is often important in criminal cases, but false or misleading eyewitness
evidence is known to be a leading cause of wrongful convictions. One explanation for
mistakes that jurors are making when evaluating eyewitness evidence is their lack of accurate
knowledge relating to false memory. This article examines lay beliefs relating to memory and
ways in which they diverge from expert consensus. It identifies ways in which current
directions provided to jurors in this area are likely to be deficient in influencing juror
knowledge and in helping them apply that knowledge in a case context, and develops criteria
that can be used to assess the likely effectiveness of directions. A new evidence-based
training direction is designed based on these criteria, and tested in a mock jury study
(N=411). Results suggest that the proposed direction is more effective than a basic direction
in influencing juror knowledge and facilitating the application of that knowledge to case
facts