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The Trial Process pp 115–144Cite as

Reconstructive Memory Processes in Eyewitness Testimony

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Part of the book series: Perspectives in Law & Psychology ((PILP,volume 2))

Abstract

During the Senate Watergate hearings in 1973, John Dean testified regarding a meeting with Herbert Kalmbach. He claimed that he had met Kalmbach in the coffee shop of the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. and that they had both gone directly upstairs to Kalmbach’s room. Dean had no motive to lie. Yet he was pressed repeatedly in a way that suggested he might be lying. Each time, Dean vehemently reaffirmed his testimony: the meeting had taken place, it began in the Mayflower Hotel coffee shop and it ended in Kalmbach’s room in the same hotel. At one point, one of Dean’s questioners revealed that the register of the Mayflower Hotel did not show Kalmbach to have been registered at the time in question. Dean still confidently stuck to his story and explained the apparent inconsistency by suggesting that Kalmbach might have been using a false name. Eventually, the difficulty was cleared up: it was pointed out that the Statler Hilton Hotel in Washington has a coffee shop called the Mayflower Doughnut Coffee Shop. Kalmbach had been registered there at the time in question.

This research was supported by grants to the author from the Urban Mass Transportation Administration, from the National Institute of Mental Health, and from the National Science Foundation.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, NI-25, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, 98195, USA

    Elizabeth F. Loftus

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  1. Elizabeth F. Loftus
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology and College of Law, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

    Bruce Dennis Sales

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© 1981 Plenum Press, New York

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Loftus, E.F. (1981). Reconstructive Memory Processes in Eyewitness Testimony. In: Sales, B.D. (eds) The Trial Process. Perspectives in Law & Psychology, vol 2. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-3767-6_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-3767-6_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4684-3769-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4684-3767-6

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