Witnesses

How reliable are your senses?

There are many things that can affect our senses. Some enhance the senses and some can distract the senses.

Senses can be enhanced by :

- drugs

- exercise

- chilli

- sleep

These things make us more aware of what is going on. For example after we eat or after we exercise we tend to be more alert therefore being able to realise more of what is going on. If we were to witness a crime when we are fully awake and aware of our suroundings, we are more likely to have seen exactly what happened and even remember the details of the criminal.

Our senses can also be easily distracted. For instance if someone were to be woken up by a burglar at night, it is quite likely that they are not going to remember the little details of the person because they were tired and not fully conscious. Sometimes people can even be mistaken and accuse a perfectly innocent person of something.

I think that eyewitness accounts should be taken seriously, but also analysed to see if it can be trusted. Things that should be taken into account are the state that the witness was in, also what time of the day it was.