Understanding eyewitness testimony with virtual reality

For many decades, psychological science has been critically important for conducting experiments into eyewitness identification and memory. Over this time, two approaches to research have become dominant, comprising of highly controlled laboratory experiments to establish cause-and-effect with precision, and field studies that offer less control but greater complexity and ecological validity. In this chapter, we introduce virtual reality as a technology that can harness the advantages of both approaches, by providing interactive three-dimensional environments that also preserve experimental control and offer sophisticated measurement of human behavior. Based on its capacity to safely host a wide range of crime scenarios, virtual reality has the potential to transform the study of eyewitness identification and memory. We describe the state-of-the-art of current virtual reality technology for implementing such research. We then review relevant studies that have started to transition to this technology, focusing on research on forensic person identification, intergroup violence, crime scene visits and jury decision-making.