EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS

TEACHERS NOTES
WARMER
Ask the students the following questions:
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What could negatively influence eyewitness testimony?

Whats the judicial system like in your country?
Have you ever considered being a lawyer?
If you were a lawyer, would you represent someone you think might be guilty?

PRE-TEACH VOCABULARY
Write the following words onto flashcards and spread them on the table. Get the students to give definitions for
the words they know, and then explain to them the words they dont know.
a.
b.
c.
d.
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f.
g.
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j.
k.
l.
m.
n.
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horsing around
culprit
mug shot
adamant(ly)
exonerated
abhor
inference
nudge
audacious
stoic
emboldened
counsel
malleable
volatile
vivid

LISTENING
Get the students to watch the video Why eyewitnesses get it wrong, by Scott Fraser, on www.Ted.com, and then
answer the following questions. To make the listening more difficult you can also ask the students to listen out for
the vocabulary and then tell you afterwards what the words were referring to.
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In how many cases was a wrong verdict passed and then overturned later? 250-280 cases
What is the speakers job? Forensic neuro-physiologist
What techniques were used to undermine the eye-witness accounts? The speaker established that visibility
was very, very poor at the time of the crime, and then reconstructed the crime scene with similar lighting
levels and took pictures
In what way was the speaker audacious? He dared the judge to go to the crime scene and see for himself. He
also told the car to drive around the block and stop directly in front of the judge.
How many of the eye witnesses identified the same person? All of them
According to the speaker how accurate are our memories and why? Very inaccurate. Our brains abhor a
vacuum and will fill in extra information that is missing. And we believe this information to be true.
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EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS
TEACHERS NOTES
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
i.
j.
k.
l.
m.
n.
o.

horsing around the kids were horsing around in front of the house before the shooting
culprit the police identified the alleged culprit within 24 hours of the shooting
mug shot they showed a photo array of mug shots to the eyewitnesses
adamant(ly) the alleged culprit had insisted on his innocence for 21 years
exonerated 250-280 cases were reinvestigated and the accused were exonerated
abhor the brain abhors a vacuum
inference we have reconstructed memories based on inference and speculation
nudge the judge needed more convincing so the speaker challenged him to go to the crime scene
audacious the speaker was audacious to suggest the judge should go to the crime scene
stoic the judge was stoic at the crime reconstruction
emboldened the speaker was emboldened by his scientific calculations or stupidity
counsel opposing counsel usually opposes scientific evidence in court
malleable our brains are malleable
volatile our brains are volatile
vivid how vivid our memories are is not an indication of how accurate they are

FOLLOW-ON ACTIVITY/HOMEWORK
In the listening the speaker refers to 250-280 crimes where the alleged criminals were later exonerated. Get the
students to investigate how the FBI were found to be giving false and exaggerated evidence in court over the last
few decades.

REVISE VOCABULARY
Once you have finished the lesson, don't forget to go through the vocabulary once more with the students. You
could get the students to pick up the flashcards one at a time and make up a story. Or get them to draw the plan
of a house on a piece of paper, and then allocate each word to a different room of the house based on what
associations they may have or can come up with. When they have done this, they need to explain the positioning
of their words to the others in the classroom e.g. horsing around could be in the living room because that's where
you play games, culprit could be in the kitchen because that's where you steal chocolate etc etc