ABSTRACT
In Chapter 1 we looked at the way in which we perceive other people and examined some of the clues that we attend to when forming an impression of others. Person perception is one example of the way in which we process stimuli from the outside world and use this information in order to form an impression. But the process of perception is involved in far more situations than simply the processing of information about other people. Every time a witness or a victim gives information to a police officer they will be relying on their perception and memory to provide a picture of the event. The police officer will also be relying on his/her perception of the witness before forming an impression of the usefulness of the information that they provide. In this chapter we will consider what psychologists have learned about perception and memory and look at the ways in which a knowledge of these processes will be of benefit to police officers.
