<P> Eyewitness testimony is the account a bystander or victim gives in the courtroom, describing what that person observed that occurred during the specific incident under investigation . Ideally this recollection of events is detailed; however, this is not always the case . This recollection is used as evidence to show what happened from a witness' point of view . Memory recall has been considered a credible source in the past, but has recently come under attack as forensics can now support psychologists in their claim that memories and individual perceptions can be unreliable, manipulated, and biased . Due to this, many countries and states within the US are now attempting to make changes in how eyewitness testimony is presented in court . Eyewitness testimony is a specialized focus within cognitive psychology . </P> <P> Psychologists have probed the reliability of eyewitness testimony since the beginning of the 20th century . One prominent pioneer was Hugo Münsterberg, whose controversial book On the Witness Stand (1908) demonstrated the fallibility of eyewitness accounts, but met with fierce criticism, particularly in legal circles . His ideas did, however, gain popularity with the public . Decades later, DNA testing would clear individuals convicted on the basis of errant eyewitness testimony . Studies by Scheck, Neufel, and Dwyer showed that many DNA - based exonerations involved eyewitness evidence . </P> <P> In the 1970s and' 80s, Bob Buckhout showed inter alia that eyewitness conditions can, at least within ethical and other constraints, be simulated on university campuses, and that large numbers of people can be mistaken: "Nearly 2,000 witnesses can be wrong" was the title of one paper . </P>

A pioneer in the field of eye witness research