Self-study
Studies of the reliability of eyewitness identifications show little correlation between the accuracy of a witness's account and the confidence the witness has in the account. ███████ ███████ ███ ████████ ██ █████████ █ █████████ ██████████ ███████ ████████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ███████████████ ██████████ ██████ ████████ ███ ███████ ██ ████████ ███████ ███████ ██ █████ █████████ ███ ████ ███ ███████ ███████████ █████████
Summary
Some factors make eyewitnesses more or less confident about their testimony without changing how accurate their testimony is. Police officers should therefore not allow witnesses to hear other witnesses identifying suspects.
Notable Assumptions
The argument moves from a broad statement that there are some elements that influence a witness’s confidence to a very specific piece of advice for police officers. There is, however, no specific statement about how that advice for police officers is connected to the confidence of witnesses. We therefore need some principle that connects the general claims about confidence to the specific example of witnesses hearing other witnesses. We may also want some principle explaining why police officers should actually care about the confidence of witnesses.
17.
Which one of the following ██ █ █████████ ██████████ ███ ██████ █████ ██ ██████ █████████
a
The confidence people ████ ██ ████ ████ ████████ ██████ ████ ██ ████████ ██ █████ █████████ ██ ████ █████ ██████ █████ ██ ████ █████
This explains the link between the general claim about confidence and the specific guidance for police officers - hearing the testimony of other witnesses is one of the things that can affect the confidence of witnesses.
b
Unless an eyewitness ██ ██████████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ █ █████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ██ ███ ██████████ ██████ ██ ████████
Wrong trigger. The argument isn’t about how many suspects an eyewitness should be confronted with at a time.
c
If several eyewitnesses ███ ████████ ███ ████ ███████ ██ █ ███████ ██ ██ ████ ██████ ████ ███ ███████ █████████ ███ █████ ████ ██ ████ ███ ██████████ ██████████ ███ ████████
Wrong trigger. The argument isn’t about whether multiple similar testimonies are more likely to result in an accurate answer - it’s about how police officers should organize different witnesses to maintain their confidence.
d
Police officers are ████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████████ █████████ ████ ████ ██████████ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ████ ██████████
The argument isn’t about the relative significance of accuracy and confidence - it is focused on the elements that can impact confidence.
e
The accuracy of ██ ██████████ ███████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███████████ ████ █████ ████████████ █████ ██ ████ █████
Wrong trigger. The argument isn’t about whether different testimonies are less likely to be accurate - it’s about how police officers should organize different witnesses to maintain their confidence.