【正确答案】Recent legal research indicates that identification of people by witnesses in a courtroom is not as reliable as commonly believed. Memory is complex and the commonly held perceptions about how our minds work and how well we remember are often wrong. Both common sense and research say memory declines over time. The abilities to recall and recognize are at their best immediately after encoding the information, declining at first rapidly, then gradually. The longer the delay, the more likely it is that information obtained after the event will interfere with the original memory, which reduces accuracy. Witnesses may see or read information after the event, then integrate it to produce something other than what was experienced, significantly reducing the reliability of their memory, of an event or offender. It seems that deciding whether any memory is to be finally assessed as reliable or the treacherous ally of invention will largely remain a challenge for judges and juries.