Self-study
Nearly every criminal trial includes eyewitness testimony, and cognitive psychologists have hypothesized that Conclusion misidentification by eyewitnesses is a common reason for mistaken convictions in criminal trials.
Summarize Argument
Cognitive psychologists hypothesize that eyewitness misidentification is a common reason for wrongful convictions in criminal trials. We're only given the contextual information that eyewitness testimony is included in most criminal trials, not the psychologists' specific evidence for their hypothesis.
Notable Assumptions
Cognitive psychologists must have some reason for believing that eyewitness misidentification is a common reason for wrongful convictions. Just because eyewitness testimony features in nearly all trials doesn't mean that it is necessarily an important factor leading to convictions. Besides assuming that eyewitness testimony is a significant factor in the decision to convict, The psychologists also assume that eyewitnesses are mistaken often enough for misidentification to be a common, rather than an occasional, cause of mistaken convictions.
13.
Each of the following, if █████ ████████ ███ █████████ ██████████████ ██████████ ███████
a
Eyewitnesses' reports are ███ ████ ██████ ██████ ███ ███████████
This supports the hypothesis. If eyewitness reports are the most common reason for convictions, then misidentification by eyewitnesses seems likely to lead to wrongful convictions.
Plausibility
Plausibility
Presenting evidence that corroborates (in Strengthen) or conflicts (in Weaken) with the author's hypothesized explanation or the predictions that follow from that explanation.
b
In most crimes, ████████████ ████ ████ ███ ███████████ ████ ████████ ███ ██████ ███ █████████ ████ ██ ███████████ ███ █████ ██ ██████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ████████
This supports the hypothesis, because it tells us that eyewitnesses have a high chance of misidentifying the perpetrator in most crimes.
Causal mechanism
Causal mechanism
Answers that undermine, or help establish, the practical story of how an alleged cause could produce the alleged effect.
c
The shock of ██████████ █ █████ █████ ██ ██████ ████ █ █████████ ██████ ██ ███ █████████████ ████ ████ ██ ██████████
This supports the hypothesis, because it gives us another reason to think eyewitnesses are liable to misidentify the perpetrator.
Causal mechanism
Causal mechanism
Answers that undermine, or help establish, the practical story of how an alleged cause could produce the alleged effect.
d
Judges often instruct ██████ █████ █████ █████████████ █████ █████ █████████ ██ ████████████ ██ █████████
This weakens the hypothesis. If this is true, then juries will be aware that eyewitness testimony is likely to be mistaken in certain situations, and so might not give eyewitness accounts as much weight when deciding to convict in such cases.
Directionally wrong
Directionally wrong
Answers that, if they have any effect, do the opposite of what we want (weaken when we're trying to strengthen, or strengthen when we're trying to weaken).
e
Jurors are very ██████ ██ ███████ ████████████ ███ ██████ ██████████ ███ ██████████ █████████ ███████ ██████ ████ ██████████
This supports the hypothesis, since it tells us that unreliable eyewitness accounts are likely to be accepted by jurors and so lead to mistaken convictions.
Causal mechanism
Causal mechanism
Answers that undermine, or help establish, the practical story of how an alleged cause could produce the alleged effect.