1
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McKinley GL, Benjamin AS, Gronlund SD. Metamnemonic predictions of lineup identification. Memory 2023; 31:1019-1038. [PMID: 37267372 DOI: 10.1080/09658211.2023.2218123] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2022] [Accepted: 05/19/2023] [Indexed: 06/04/2023]
Abstract
After a crime is committed, investigators may query witnesses about whether they believe they will be to identify the perpetrator. However, we know little about how such metacognitive judgments are related to performance on a subsequent lineup identification task. The extant research has found the strength of this relationship to be small or nonexistent, which conflicts with the large body of literature indicating a moderate relationship between predictions and performance on memory tasks. In Studies 1-3, we induce variation in encoding quality by having participants watch a mock crime video with either low, medium, or high exposure quality, and then assess their future lineup performance. Calibration analysis revealed that assessments of future lineup performance were predictive of identification accuracy. This relationship was driven primarily by poor performance following low assessments. Studies 4 and 5 showed that these predictions are not based on a witness's evaluation of their encoding experience, nor on a contemporaneous assessment of memory strength. These results reinforce the argument that variation in memory quality is needed to obtain reliable relationships between predictions and performance. An unexpected finding is that witnesses who made a prediction shortly after encoding evinced superior memory compared to those who made a prediction later.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Aaron S Benjamin
- Department of Psychology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
| | - Scott D Gronlund
- Department of Psychology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
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2
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Eisen ML, Williams T, Jones J, Ying R. Variations in the Encoding Conditions Can Affect Eyewitnesses’ Vulnerability to Suggestive Influence. APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/acp.4000] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
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3
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Gustafsson PU, Lindholm T, Jönsson FU. Eyewitness accuracy and retrieval effort: Effects of time and repetition. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0273455. [PMID: 36070290 PMCID: PMC9451081 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0273455] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2022] [Accepted: 08/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
An important task for the law enforcement is to assess the accuracy of eyewitness testimonies. Recent research show that indicators of effortful memory retrieval, such as pausing and hedging (e.g. “I think”, “maybe”), are more common in incorrect recall. However, a limitation in these studies is that participants are interviewed shortly after witnessing an event, as opposed to after greater retention intervals. We set out to mitigate this shortcoming by investigating the retrieval effort-accuracy relationship over time. In this study, participants watched a staged crime and were interviewed directly afterwards, and two weeks later. Half the participants also carried out a repetition task during the two-week retention interval. Results showed that the retrieval-effort cues Delays and Hedges predicted accuracy at both sessions, including after repetition. We also measured confidence, and found that confidence also predicted accuracy over time, although repetition led to increased confidence for incorrect memories. Moreover, retrieval-effort cues partially mediated between accuracy and confidence.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Torun Lindholm
- Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
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4
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Gustafsson PU, Lindholm T, Jönsson FU. Judging the accuracy of eyewitness testimonies using retrieval effort cues. APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 2021. [DOI: 10.1002/acp.3854] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Torun Lindholm
- Department of Psychology Stockholm University Stockholm Sweden
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5
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Kukucka J, Dror IE, Yu M, Hall L, Morgan RM. The impact of evidence lineups on fingerprint expert decisions. APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 2020. [DOI: 10.1002/acp.3703] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Jeff Kukucka
- Department of PsychologyTowson University Towson Maryland USA
| | - Itiel E. Dror
- Centre for the Forensic Sciences, Department of Security and Crime ScienceUniversity College London London UK
| | - Melissa Yu
- Centre for the Forensic Sciences, Department of Security and Crime ScienceUniversity College London London UK
| | - Lisa Hall
- Directorate of Forensic SciencesMetropolitan Police London UK
| | - Ruth M. Morgan
- Centre for the Forensic Sciences, Department of Security and Crime ScienceUniversity College London London UK
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6
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Gustafsson PU, Lindholm T, Jönsson FU. Predicting Accuracy in Eyewitness Testimonies With Memory Retrieval Effort and Confidence. Front Psychol 2019; 10:703. [PMID: 30984087 PMCID: PMC6450142 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00703] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/13/2018] [Accepted: 03/13/2019] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Evaluating eyewitness testimonies has proven a difficult task. Recent research, however, suggests that incorrect memories are more effortful to retrieve than correct memories, and confidence in a memory is based on retrieval effort. We aimed to replicate and extend these findings, adding retrieval latency as a predictor of memory accuracy. Participants watched a film sequence with a staged crime and were interviewed about its content. We then analyzed retrieval effort cues in witness responses. Results showed that incorrect memories included more "effort cues" than correct memories. While correct responses were produced faster than incorrect responses, delays in responses proved a better predictor of accuracy than response latency. Furthermore, participants were more confident in correct than incorrect responses, and the effort cues partially mediated this confidence-accuracy relation. In sum, the results support previous findings of a relationship between memory accuracy and objectively verifiable cues to retrieval effort.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Torun Lindholm
- Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
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7
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Abstract
AbstractSince the late 1980s evidence has been accumulating that confidence recorded at the time of identification is a reliable postdictor of eyewitness identification. Nonetheless, there may be noteworthy exceptions. In a re-analysis of a field study by Sauerland and Sporer (2009; N = 720; n = 436 choosers between 15 and 83 years old) we show that the postdictive value of confidence was reduced for participants aged 40 years or older. Different calibration indices and Bayesian analyses demonstrate a progressive dissociation between identification performance and confidence across age groups. While the confidence expressed following an identification remained unchanged across the lifespan, identification accuracy decreased. Young, highly confident witnesses were much more likely to be accurate than less confident witnesses. With increasing age, witnesses were more likely to be overconfident, particularly at the medium and high levels of confidence, and the postdictive value of confidence and decision times decreased. We conclude that witness age may be an important moderator to take into account when evaluating identification evidence.
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8
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Two field studies on the effects of alcohol on eyewitness identification, confidence, and decision times. APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 2018. [DOI: 10.1002/acp.3493] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
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9
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Sauerland M, Sagana A, Sporer SL, Wixted JT. Decision time and confidence predict choosers' identification performance in photographic showups. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0190416. [PMID: 29346394 PMCID: PMC5773080 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0190416] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2017] [Accepted: 12/14/2017] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
In vast contrast to the multitude of lineup studies that report on the link between decision time, confidence, and identification accuracy, only a few studies looked at these associations for showups, with results varying widely across studies. We therefore set out to test the individual and combined value of decision time and post-decision confidence for diagnosing the accuracy of positive showup decisions using confidence-accuracy characteristic curves and Bayesian analyses. Three-hundred-eighty-four participants viewed a stimulus event and were subsequently presented with two showups which could be target-present or target-absent. As expected, we found a negative decision time-accuracy and a positive post-decision confidence-accuracy correlation for showup selections. Confidence-accuracy characteristic curves demonstrated the expected additive effect of combining both postdictors. Likewise, Bayesian analyses, taking into account all possible target-presence base rate values showed that fast and confident identification decisions were more diagnostic than slow or less confident decisions, with the combination of both being most diagnostic for postdicting accurate and inaccurate decisions. The postdictive value of decision time and post-decision confidence was higher when the prior probability that the suspect is the perpetrator was high compared to when the prior probability that the suspect is the perpetrator was low. The frequent use of showups in practice emphasizes the importance of these findings for court proceedings. Overall, these findings support the idea that courts should have most trust in showup identifications that were made fast and confidently, and least in showup identifications that were made slowly and with low confidence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Melanie Sauerland
- Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Department of Clinical Psychological Science, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
- * E-mail:
| | - Anna Sagana
- Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Department of Clinical Psychological Science, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
| | - Siegfried L. Sporer
- Department of Psychology and Sports Science, University of Giessen, Giessen, Germany
| | - John T. Wixted
- Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, United States of America
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Eisen ML, Skerrit-Perta A, Jones JM, Owen J, Cedré GC. Pre-admonition Suggestion in Live Showups: When Witnesses Learn that the Cops Caught ‘the’ Guy. APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 2017. [DOI: 10.1002/acp.3349] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Jade Owen
- California State University; Los Angeles USA
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11
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False Beliefs About Asylum Seekers to Australia: The Role of Confidence in Such Beliefs, Prejudice, and the Third Person Effect. JOURNAL OF PACIFIC RIM PSYCHOLOGY 2017. [DOI: 10.1017/prp.2017.5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022] Open
Abstract
There has been much controversy about the treatment of asylum seekers in Australia in recent years, with the Australian Government continuing to enforce a very hard-line stance on asylum seekers who arrive to Australia by boat. The present study examined attitudes towards asylum seekers using 164 Australian community members during June 2015 by way of questionnaire. Our primary research question involved how five variables predicted false beliefs about asylum seekers. Specifically, we measured prejudice, the third-person effect, and confidence in the answers given to false beliefs about asylum seekers. Regression results indicated that the main predictors of false beliefs were right-wing political orientation, prejudice, confidence in espousing false beliefs, and the third-person effect (politicians). Furthermore, most of our community participants accepted a large number of false beliefs as being true, with approximately two-thirds of our participants scoring above the midpoint. This reflects similar findings over the last decade or so. Our results indicate that, if one believes in bottom-up change, a more nuanced approach needs to be undertaken with community anti-prejudice interventions.
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Flowe HD, Takarangi MKT, Humphries JE, Wright DS. Alcohol and remembering a hypothetical sexual assault: Can people who were under the influence of alcohol during the event provide accurate testimony? Memory 2015; 24:1042-61. [DOI: 10.1080/09658211.2015.1064536] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
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13
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Brewer N, Weber N, Wootton D, Lindsay DS. Identifying the Bad Guy in a Lineup Using Confidence Judgments Under Deadline Pressure. Psychol Sci 2012; 23:1208-14. [DOI: 10.1177/0956797612441217] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Eyewitness-identification tests often culminate in witnesses not picking the culprit or identifying innocent suspects. We tested a radical alternative to the traditional lineup procedure used in such tests. Rather than making a positive identification, witnesses made confidence judgments under a short deadline about whether each lineup member was the culprit. We compared this deadline procedure with the traditional sequential-lineup procedure in three experiments with retention intervals ranging from 5 min to 1 week. A classification algorithm that identified confidence criteria that optimally discriminated accurate from inaccurate decisions revealed that decision accuracy was 24% to 66% higher under the deadline procedure than under the traditional procedure. Confidence profiles across lineup stimuli were more informative than were identification decisions about the likelihood that an individual witness recognized the culprit or correctly recognized that the culprit was not present. Large differences between the maximum and the next-highest confidence value signaled very high accuracy. Future support for this procedure across varied conditions would highlight a viable alternative to the problematic lineup procedures that have traditionally been used by law enforcement.
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14
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Witnesses’ memories for lineup fillers postdicts their identification accuracy. JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH IN MEMORY AND COGNITION 2012. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jarmac.2011.08.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
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15
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Wong CK, Read JD. Positive and negative effects of physical context reinstatement on eyewitness recall and identification. APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 2011. [DOI: 10.1002/acp.1605] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
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Sporer SL. Lessons from the origins of eyewitness testimony research in Europe. APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 2008. [DOI: 10.1002/acp.1479] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
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17
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Wells GL. Theory, logic and data: Paths to a more coherent eyewitness science. APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 2008. [DOI: 10.1002/acp.1488] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
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18
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Bornstein BH, Penrod SD. Hugo who? G. F. Arnold's alternative early approach to psychology and law. APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 2008. [DOI: 10.1002/acp.1480] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
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Memon A, Mastroberardino S, Fraser J. Münsterberg's legacy: What does eyewitness research tell us about the reliability of eyewitness testimony? APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 2008. [DOI: 10.1002/acp.1487] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
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20
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Lane SM, Meissner CA. A ‘middle road’ approach to bridging the basic-applied divide in eyewitness identification research. APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 2008. [DOI: 10.1002/acp.1482] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
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