Case Study Of Kelley's Testimony

The testimony given the child and conducted by Kelley is one that should not be admissible in a court of law in today’s world. The testimony is filled with red flags that warrant for the label of misinformation effect. Dr. Bruce Goldstein defines the misinformation effect as “misleading information presented after a person witnesses an event changes how the person describes that event later.” This can effect can be seen most of Kelley’s remember/know procedural questions such as, “Now, pretend this was you. Did the clown touches you? Where did the clown touch you? and Did the clown touch any…Will you show me if the clown touched any part of you?” The child changed their answer from a “No, he didn’t touch me any-“ to a “Right there (indicates …show more content…
Kelley through her controversially leading question is trying to recreate the state the child was in when the encoding of the specific clown stimulus occurred. The one crucial memory Kelley is trying to retrieve from the child is the episodic memory, which is the memory that is involved in personal events and or episodes. In this the case the child’s memory of the personal event of what actually occurred with the clown. The use episodic memory, though can be useful, does come with grave consequences. Episodic memory requires the “individual to mentally travel back in time in his or her mind to re-experience events that happened in the past.” Dr. Bruce Goldstein identifies this experience as mental time travel. The consequences involved in this process lies in the lack of accuracy. Due to the decay process that occurs over time and Kelley altering the child’s source of memory, could most likely result in a source monitoring error. When Kelley keeps leading the fact that the clown touched him or her, Kelley is unconsciously distorting the child’s own memory to incorporate any notion that Kelley wants the child to believe …show more content…
For a testimony in general to be conducted in the proper, correct, and ethical manner it should follow Dr. Bruce Goldstein cognitive interview: “a procedure used for interviewing crime scene witnesses that involve letting witnesses talk with minimal interruptions. It also uses techniques that help witnesses recreate the situation present at the crime scene by have them placed themselves back in the scene and recreate the emotions they were feeling, where they were looking, and how the scene may have appeared when viewed from different perspectives.” The interview preformed by Kelley consisted of many interruptions and did not use any techniques that allowed the child to recreate emotions, facts, or even memories that occurred from the scene. Kelley was also was leading child with misleading post event information, that causes the misinformation effect spoken about above. All of which created distorted and falsified memories in order for the interviewer to get answers that they are aiming for. Creating a false eyewitnesses’ testimony which could put an innocent man or women behind bars and some cases lets a truly guilty individual walk away free. In addition to that, making a child to recreate and or remember a situation that emotionally traumatizing, is just unethical in