Forensic Science and Observation
The Latin root word forensis, from which forensic science gets its name, literally translates to this.
What is "of the forum" (or open court)?
The brain's natural filtering process that prevents sensory overload by ignoring non-essential environmental data.
What is sensory filtering (or perception filtering)?
A formal statement made under oath by a person who witnessed a crime firsthand.
What is eyewitness testimony?
The primary type of biological evidence used by the Innocence Project to exonerate wrongfully convicted individuals.
What is DNA evidence?
To prevent missing crucial evidence, investigators conduct a visual scan using this organized approach.
What is a systematic search (or grid/lane search)?
The logical process of reasoning from general principles to specific, verifiable facts.
What is deductive reasoning?
Information gathered using your five senses without making assumptions or conclusions.
What is an observation?
The brain's interpretation of sensory information, which is not always an accurate reflection of reality.
What is perception?
Elevated levels of this emotional state during a traumatic event significantly impair witness memory accuracy.
What is stress (or anxiety/fear)?
According to Innocence Project data, this factor is the single leading cause of wrongful convictions nationwide.
What is eyewitness misidentification (or faulty eyewitness testimony)?
Investigators must consciously avoid making these immediate mental jumps when stepping onto a scene.
What are assumptions (or immediate inferences)?
Interviewers should ask these types of broad questions to avoid accidentally planting ideas or bias into a witness's memory.
What are open-ended questions?
A logical interpretation or assumption drawn from prior knowledge and observations.
What is an inference?
The visual gap where the optic nerve connects to the retina, which the brain automatically "fills in."
What is the blind spot?
The tendency for a victim or witness to focus attention on a perpetrator's weapon, reducing memory accuracy for facial features.
What is the weapon focus effect?
The decade in which civil rights attorneys Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld founded the Innocence Project (1992).
What is the 1990s (or 1992)?
Because human memory rapidly decays over time, investigators must perform this action immediately at the scene.
What is documentation (taking notes and photos)?
The specialized technique used by investigators to recreate the environment and context of a crime to aid witness memory retrieval.
What is a cognitive interview?
Besides collecting and analyzing physical evidence, this is the third major duty of a forensic scientist in court.
What is providing expert witness testimony?
The psychological phenomenon where intense focus on one task causes a person to completely miss an obvious unexpected stimulus.
What is inattentional blindness (or selective attention)?
Factors out of control of law enforcement—such as lighting, distance, and duration of the event—are known as this category of variables.
What are estimator variables?
The approximate percentage of post-conviction DNA exonerations in the U.S. that involved faulty eyewitness identification.
What is 70% (accept 69% to 75%)?
A search pattern that divides a crime scene into square cells to ensure complete, thorough inspection.
What is a grid search pattern?
To draw valid conclusions, an investigator must carefully isolate and separate this subjective input from verifiable facts.
What is opinion (or bias/assumption)?
Forensic science is strictly defined as the application of science to matters governed by this system.
What is the legal (or criminal justice) system?
Human memory does not record like a video camera; instead, it undergoes this process where it is altered every time it is recalled.
What is reconstruction (or reconstructive memory)?
The introduction of misleading information after an event that alters or contaminates a witness's memory.
What is the misinformation effect (or memory contamination)?
The legal term meaning to officially clear an individual of a conviction and declare their innocence.
What is exoneration?
The state of remaining completely unbiased and focused strictly on verifiable facts during an investigation.
What is objectivity?
The step-by-step cognitive process of breaking a complex problem into parts, analyzing evidence, and reaching a logical conclusion.
What is analytical thinking (or critical thinking)?