“Criminal Mind”: Sadie Yurkovich studies the reliability of eyewitness testimony

By J.W. Dennison

When it comes to legal proceedings, one of the most powerful types of evidence is eyewitness testimony. However, is it the most accurate? That’s a question Sadie Yurkovich set out to answer in her senior seminar project “Eyewitness testimony: How reliable is it?” at Muskingum University.

Yurkovich, a criminal justice and psychology major, is currently analyzing data collected for her senior study.

"…eyewitness testimony is something that I have just always really been interested in and something that I have learned about in some of my classes, and I feel like it is a very misconstrued type of thing, especially in the media,” Yurkovich said.

Muskingum University student, Sadie Yurkovich / Photo provided by Yurkovich

According to Yurkovich, her study involved 22 subjects split between two “conditions” with secret actors, who were referred to as “confederates” in the study. The confederates would act out a scene and then leave the area, leaving the subjects to reflect on what they had witnessed.

In one group, the control condition group, the subjects would report what they had witnessed by answering a questionnaire, and rate the confidence they had in their answers.

In the other group, the experimental condition group, an actor (a “confederate”) would initate a conversation with the subjects about what they had just witnessed before they filled out the same questionnaire as the first group. This was done to determine whether or not the conversation influenced their memory of the event or the confidence in their answers.

“So, my first hypothesis was that the people in that experimental condition, who talked to that confederate after the event happened, were going to be less reliable eyewitness evidence,” Yurkovich said.

While her first hypothesis focused on the reliability of the testimonies, the second hypothesis focused on the confidence subjects would have in their answers based on the scenario they were placed in.

“I predicted that those who experienced the experimental condition were going to feel more confident in their memory, because they had someone there to kind of bounce their ideas off of and get confirmation and discuss what they believed that they had seen during the incident that happened,” Yurkovich said.

Yurkovich is still in the midst of analyzing the data from her study, but shared her early impressions.

“So, the people in that experimental condition and in that control condition had the same kind of level of accuracyof their testimony,” Yurkovich said. “So, my data kind of refuted that first hypothesis. But for my second one, where I had said that the experimental condition would be more confident in their memory, I have some numbers and some data to support that [hypothesis].”

Yurkovich is scheduled to graduate from Muskingum this spring and will enroll at Carlow University in Pittsburgh, near her hometown of Coraopolis in Pennsylvania, this fall. At Carlow, Yurkovich will pursue a master’s degree in psychology with a concentration in forensics. She is already considering pursuing a doctorate program upon completing her master’s degree.

Her passion for criminology started at a young age, sparked by her and her mother’s shared interest in crime TV.

“My mom and I have always watched Criminal Minds together. Anything true crime,” Yurkovich said. “If I’m at home, it is on the TV. It is just something that we have shared. So, from a very young age, that is just something that I was very passionate about.”

Several years ago, during an eight-grade school project on potential careers, Yurkovich learned about the work of criminal investigators. This project further cemented her passion for the field and she quickly realized that her career aspirations was set in stone.

Nearing high school graduation, Yurkovich received a recruitment letter from a small university in New Concord she had never heard of before, Muskingum University. The university wanted to recruit her for their track and field team, and after researching the university’s program offerings, she decided it was a great fit for her.

“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, it checks all the boxes…it has criminal justice, psychology, German, track—like, what else do I need?’” Yurkovich said. “So, I came, took a tour [and] I absolutely loved it.”

Yurkovich eventually dropped the track team to focus solely on her academics. Thanks to the AP classes she completed in high school, she is scheduled to graduate a year early, in May 2024.

As Yurkovich prepares for graduation, she offered advice to students who are about to undertake their own senior seminar projects.

“If you are someone who wants to do one thing and you are scared and yo are worried that it might be more work, or that it is going to be really challenging—do it anyway,” Yurkovich said. “Your advisors and the faculty here and the students are always going to support you.”