Final answer:
Eyewitness memories are shaped by emotions, beliefs, and perceptions, all of which contribute to their construction and can lead to unreliable testimonies in a legal context.
Step-by-step explanation:
When referring to eyewitness memories, several elements contribute to the construction of these memories. These include emotions, beliefs, and perceptions. Emotions can greatly influence memory recall, often enhancing the memory of emotionally charged events but leading to distortions. Beliefs can cause bias in memory, shaping the way events are remembered to fit with existing beliefs. Perceptions at the time of an event affect how it is encoded and later retrieved from memory, leading to differing accounts of the same event. Understanding these elements is crucial for jurors evaluating eyewitness testimony, as they contribute to the unreliability of such evidence. In a court of law, an attorney may explain to the jurors that eyewitness testimony can be unreliable due to the malleability of human memory and the influence of suggestion, as shown in studies conducted by researchers such as Loftus.