Which statement best captures eyewitness biases to consider in identification?

• A. Stress and memory factors are not significant to eyewitness accuracy.
• B. Only lighting affects eyewitness accuracy.
• C. Cross-racial bias is the only factor that matters.
• D. Stress, lighting, duration of exposure, weapon focus, cross-racial identification errors, memory malleability, and suggestion.

Answer: (D)

Eyewitness identification is highly vulnerable to how people perceive, encode, store, and later retrieve memories. The biases to consider include stress, lighting, duration of exposure, weapon focus, cross-racial identification errors, memory malleability, and suggestion. Stress can narrow attention and disrupt memory encoding, making recall less reliable. Poor lighting or brief exposure can obscure facial features, increasing the chance of misidentification. Weapon focus pulls attention to a weapon or other salient details, reducing focus on the person’s face. Cross-racial bias describes systematic errors when witnesses identify someone from a different race, due to differences in perceptual expertise. Memory malleability means memories can be altered by later information or suggestions, leading to changes in recall or confidence. Suggestive questioning or feedback can further distort memory or inflate confidence in a mistaken identification. Taken together, these factors show why a comprehensive view of eyewitness biases should guide identification procedures and how identifications are evaluated.