Beware of Eyewitness Accounts of Syncope or Seizures

Diagnosis of sudden catastrophic illness depends a good deal on eyewitness accounts. But, criminologists know that eyewitnesses can be unreliable, and, now, a team of neurologists in the Netherlands reconfirm this finding.

Psychology lectures that were attended by 229 students were suddenly interrupted by one of two short video clips: In one, a female tennis player faints; in the other, a woman suffers an epileptic seizure. On written multiple-choice questionnaires that were administered right after the videos ended, the students answered descriptive questions about each event correctly only about half the time (44% for the syncopal episode; 60% for the seizure). Questions about limb twitching — particularly useful for distinguishing between…