Psychology – AS Level approaches | e-Consult
AS Level approaches (1 questions)
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Schemas are organized knowledge structures that help interpret new information. In eyewitness testimony they:
- Guide attention to schema‑consistent details, improving recall of expected elements.
- Fill gaps when information is missing, leading to reconstruction based on prior knowledge.
Two common error mechanisms are:
- Source misattribution: An individual may attribute a detail generated by the schema (e.g., a weapon being a gun) to the actual event, believing it was witnessed.
- Memory conformity: Discussing the event with others can cause schema‑driven information to be incorporated, altering the original memory to match the group’s shared schema.
These processes illustrate why eyewitness accounts can be vivid yet inaccurate, emphasizing the need for caution in legal contexts.