LSAT 115 – Section 4 – Question 13

LSAT 115 - Section 4 - Question 13

December 2002

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT115 S4 Q13
+LR
Except +Exc
Strengthen +Streng
Causal Reasoning +CausR
A
6%
156
B
0%
148
C
1%
155
D
90%
162
E
3%
152
127
138
148
 +Easier 146.173 +SubsectionMedium

Nearly every criminal trial includes eyewitness testimony, and cognitive psychologists have hypothesized that 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. No evidence is provided to support this claim.

Notable Assumptions
Cognitive psychologists must have some reason for believing that eyewitness misidentification is a common reason for wrongful convictions. For one thing, convictions must sometimes be based at least partially on eyewitness testimony.

A
Eyewitnesses’ reports are the most common reason for conviction.
Convictions often depend on eyewitness reports. Such reports are sometimes flawed, which lead to wrongful convictions.
B
In most crimes, eyewitnesses have seen the perpetrator only briefly, and people are generally poor at remembering the faces of people they have seen only briefly.
Eyewitnesses often don’t correctly remember perpetrators. This strengthens the claim that eyewitness misidentification happens frequently enough to be a “common reason” for mistaken convictions.
C
The shock of witnessing a crime makes it likely that a witness’s memory of the perpetrator’s face will be distorted.
Like (B), this strengthens the claim that eyewitness misidentification happens frequently enough to be a “common reason” for mistaken convictions. If a witness’s memory is distorted, they’re likely to misidentify the perpetrator.
D
Judges often instruct juries about those circumstances under which testimony of eyewitnesses is fallible.
This weakens the cognitive psychologists’ claim. Juries are aware eyewitness testimony is likely to be mistaken in certain situation, so they likely don’t give eyewitness accounts great weight when making decisions.
E
Jurors are very likely to believe eyewitnesses who appear confident, and unreliable witnesses usually appear very confident.
Mistaken eyewitness accounts are accepted by jurors, who factor these into their decisions. These accounts hold even greater weight since jurors believe confident eyewitnesses, and unreliable eyewitnesses often appear confident.

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LSAT PrepTest 115 Explanations

Section 1 - Reading Comprehension

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Reading Comprehension

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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