#PS-02-03 Forensic Psychology: Witness Investigation
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- Course level: All Levels
About Course
The Open UniversityDescription
Try to solve a crime using nothing but eyewitness evidence
Despite advances in forensic science, eyewitness testimony remains a critical component of criminal investigations. But psychological research has revealed the dangers of relying on this testimony and how careful the police must be when questioning witnesses.
Using videos of real witnesses, from behind the scenes of a police investigation, this course explores the psychology of eyewitness testimony.
You will get the chance to test your own cognitive skills and see if your investigative powers are as good as police officers’, as you try to solve a crime using nothing but eyewitness evidence.
What topics will you cover?
- Eyewitness testimony
- Witness memory
- Inattentional blindness and observation of criminal incidents
- Interviewing witnesses
- Facial recognition
- Visual identification
Who will you learn with?
Graham is a psychologist & Professor of Forensic Cognition at the OU, with an interest in applied cognition, particularly how psychological knowledge can be used to obtain evidence from eyewitnesses
Zoe is a psychologist with an interest in how psychology relates to police investigations. She is a senior lecturer in the school of Psychology at the Open University
Who developed the course?
The Open University (OU) is the largest academic institution in the UK and a world leader in flexible distance learning, with a mission to be open to people, places, methods and ideas.
What Will I Learn?
- Investigate and understand the psychology of eyewitness testimony
- Develop your own investigative skills
- Explore human cognition and discover the mistakes your own brain can make
- Discuss concepts of criminal investigation
- Explore and consider the relationship between limitations of the human brain and miscarriages of justice
Topics for this course
Introduction to eyewitness psychology
Introduction
Psychology and miscarriages of justice00:01:41
Mistaken identification00:04:28
Knowing your own mind
Eyewitness psychology
The investigation
Good foundational course, and covers a lot of different topics. I found the information on witness testimony the most helpful and made me understand the justice system better.
It was an excellent course though sometimes the content can be disturbing/troubling. That's the nature of the course topic. The instructor was knowledgeable and experienced. More practical or real-time examples could be included to understand the concepts better.
Very interesting insights. From someone who had very little knowledge to begin with, this is a perfect method of learning proper concept first off. Instead of mindlessly & aimlessly checking online on your own!
Very interesting course, I took the course because I wanted to learn about psychology as used in forensics and criminal investigations.
Tags
Target Audience
- This course is intended for those with an interest in psychology and/or criminal investigation, and does not require any previous experience of studying either subject.