Confidence affect memory accuracy in eyewitness testimonies

At its core, memory is a highly selective process wherein individuals selectively encode, store, and retrieve information based on various factors including attentional resources, context cues, emotionality or arousal levels during encoding, availability at retrieval time points among other things (Glanzer & Adams-Webber 2003). Confidence itself is “a belief in one’s ability to complete tasks or attain goals” (Bolger et al., 1989), which suggests that individuals with greater self-efficacy will view their ability to accurately recall events as being more achievable than those with lower self efficacy beliefs. It follows then that enhanced level of confidence should be associated with higher levels of memory performance due to greater perceived capability for accurate recollection; however this may not always be true. When there is too much confidence present it could instead lead an individual into believing they are able to remember events better than they actually are resulting in misinformation or exaggerated recollections from witnesses who believe themselves infallible (Robinson & Roediger 1998). These cases suggest then a curvilinear relationship between high levels of absolute certainty i.e., ‘I am sure I saw what I said I saw’ versus lower levels of relative certainty i.e., ‘I think I saw what I said I saw’ when considering false memories and errors related specifically to recollective accuracy reported after witnessing an event (Read 1996; Robinson & Roediger 1998). Additionally, research demonstrates how external factors such as stress experienced before or during encoding affects both episodic/event specific memories alongside metamemory judgements – judgments concerning one’s own memory capabilities – which could further influence both recall accuracy and overall feelings regarding recollection abilities post-encoding (Edwards et al 2002). Thus if witnesses enter court proceedings feeling overly confident about their ability to accurately recount events due perhaps media exposure prior eto testifying where they were portrayed inaccurately as having all knowledge pertaining to case proceedings ,it could lead them into overestimating how well they actually do remember rather understimate their actual capabilities leading them astray from recalling accurate details . Conversely if witnesses feel more anxious upon entering courtroom settings—perhaps because of fear caused by unfamiliar surroundings—they may become less certain when providing accounts leading them towards potentially more accurate formulations . Both scenarios show how different emotional states preceeding testimony taking situations alter perceptions surrounding one's memory accuracies which may ultimately influence court outcomes depending on severity and type oif evidence presented amongst other variables within legal processes.. Therefore it appears likely that changes within the realm confidece alongwith external factors such as emotions experienced beforehand play significant roles within determining acuracy rates seen inn eyewithness accounts provided during legal proceedings illustrating importance omensuring proper conditions are created around testfying situations so taht most just results can achieved at endpoints

Sample Solution

  Confidence is a major factor in the accuracy of eyewitness testimonies. Memory recall is often influenced by the level of confidence that a witness has in their ability to accurately remember details from an event. A lack of confidence can result in decreased memory accuracy, while excessive confidence can lead to overconfidence bias and unrealistic expectations about one’s own memory accuracy. Therefore, it is important to consider the effects that confidence can have on the quality and reliability of an eyewitness testimony.