Course description and goals

This course will cover research on eyewitness identification.

The goals of the course are to:

Introduce students to the area of eyewitness identification and its implications for understanding how memory for individuals works for within the legal system. Introduce system and estimator variables. Obtain familiarity with the following research topics and methodology to understand how eyewitness identification is experimentally studied and how the results are used in the legal system. Develop a research proposal on the topic of eyewitness identification.

Assignments

Readings/Commentary Papers -- 30%

You will be reading from various journals and sections of books.

The class meets twice a week we will cover a new topic each week. You will be required to write a 300 word commentary paper for each class period over the reading materials – due the day the class first meets about a topic (this will help give you incentive to read the materials before class).  These commentary papers should reflect to some extent the following:  a) your personal reaction to the topic area (did it personally effect  you in some way, did it ring true with your personal experiences); b) your critique of the a specific article reading (a reflection on one of the readings in terms of what you particularly liked and disliked about it from a theoretical and/or methodological view); c) a take home picture that you obtain from having read and reflected upon all the readings for that day; or d) a research idea that you that comes from the readings. 

Class involvement: Participation & Presentation -- 30%

    A assessment of your class involvement will also be made.   This goes beyond demonstrating that you have read the material.  It encompasses your attendance and attention during class and your responsiveness and thoughts about comments made by other students in class. It will include class presentations.

Research proposal -- 20%

At the end of the semester, on the first day of exam week, you will be required to turn in a research proposal.  This research proposal should consist of a) an abstract of the paper; b) a brief introduction to the topic area of interest in the introduction and a development of your hypothesis, c) a method section illustrating how you would conduct your study, d) a result section with “dry lab” data illustrating the way that you would analyze your data and the findings that would hope to obtain that would support your hypotheses, e) a short discussion section that summarizes what you see as would the most important implications of the findings and what else you might like to do assuming you would get (or not get) the findings your propose.

Topic summary and bibliography --20%

More information about the summary and bibliography will be provided later in the course.

Your grade will be based upon the distribution as noted above.  Cheating in any form will result in flunking from the class.  Please see the college's statement on academic integrity.