Two journalists from the Press and Journal in Aberdeen have had their observational skills put to the test as part of a psychological experiment.

Business editor Joe Watson and photographer Amber Stephen were asked by the University of Aberdeen to watch two videos of a break-in to a house and car.

Afterwards, Joe and Amber were brought together and questioned on what they had witnessed - which led to confusion and disagreements.

Although the pair thought they were watching identical footage, the two films were actually slightly different.

And while Amber remembered the thief taking a bank card from a purse, Joe was sure banknotes had actually been stolen. When Amber insisted it had been the card, Joe doubted his memory and started to change his mind.

But Amber also became confused as Joe maintained the thief had stolen a mobile phone from a table and not a set of keys, as Amber had seen. The pair also gave different descriptions of the man.

After they had been told that they had witnessed different events, Amber said: "I can see how you might go along with what someone else was saying if you couldn't remember for sure what you had seen.

"I saw the thief pick up the phone but didn't remember him taking it, but because Joe was so sure I did start to think he was maybe right."

The University of Aberdeen's Department of Psychology has been conducting the research which has cast doubt over the reliability of witness evidence in criminal trials.

It has found that witnesses could be influenced by others into believing they saw events that did not actually occur, known as "memory conformity".

One part of the study found 62 per cent of people did not challenge differences in "critical items of information" in a discussion with others on what they had witnessed.

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