Why the Witness Was Certain and Wrong

Explaining eyewitness error means combining perception under stress, encoding limits, reconstruction, post-event information, and source monitoring into one account.

One identification traced from the event to the courtroom: what perception captured under threat and what it did not, how the amygdala sharpened central details and cost peripheral ones, what the police interview added, how the lineup format supplied a source, and why confidence rose as accuracy fell. Ends by naming the three procedural changes research supports and which stage of the chain each one protects.