Co-witness discussion and memory conformity. A critical view and recommendation to a lawyer about affection on memory accuracy

Essay from the year 2016 in the subject Psychology - Forensic Psychology, Penal System, grade: 2.0, The University of Sydney (Law School), course: Forensic Psychology, language: English, abstract: The objective of this work is to critically evaluate existing psychological studies about ¿memory conformity¿ and to give recommendations to a lawyer who seeks to understand memory conformity; recommendations that may guide him or her on how to handle witnesses who admit having discussed the event after it occurred and before appearing in court.

In many circumstances, court proceedings will involve the testimonies given by witnesses (eye witnesses) who provide the court with facts they observed from the scene. This raises the legal question for the court and lawyers how to value the testimonies within a case in which two witnesses admit that they discussed details of the incident immediately after it occurred.

This paper presents an extensive literature review about memory conformity and an assessment of how it will affect the validity of the witnesses' evidence presented in the courts. The paper concentrates on recent studies and the development of the topic in recent years.