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The purpose of this study was to examine differences of recalled events from a selected university student population. Eyewitness testimony is frequently used to convict defendants each year. Many of these convictions are based solely on eyewitness accounts. While much has been written on the reliability of eyewitness testimony, little is known about demographic characteristic differences that may exist. A videotaped event was shown to a sample of college students who were then asked to complete a questionnaire based on what they watched. There were significant differences found in the respondents‟ accuracy in recalling events of the video according to demographic characteristics of the sample.

Eyewitness testimony plays a crucial role in the justice system. Misidentification from eyewitnesses was reported in 70% of 300 DNA exonerations of wrongfully convicted individuals (Wixted et al., 2015). Similarly, many convicts can also be set free because of juror’s faulty eyewitness recall during examination. Previous research indicated that females are more reliable in recall than men. However, these findings were not extensively examined with regards to time delay prior to the trial. Thus, it is important to systematically examine the various factors that influence eyewitness testimony. The present study was designed to empirically examine the effects of gender, interview technique, and time interval on eyewitness recall. It was hypothesized that female participants would outscore male participants in both facial and detail recall. It was also hypothesized that the cognitive interview would yield more accurate details about the crime in comparison to the standard interview. It was hypothesized that recall for participants would decay as the time interval increased. One hundred and four participants were randomly selected from a southeastern university to participate in the study. Ages of the participants ranged from 18-40 and consisted of fifty-two males and fifty-two females. They were required to complete a series of questionnaires consisting of demographics, mood measure, personality test, and standard/cognitive interviews. The results showed a significant effect between gender, interview technique, and time interval on detail recall. In addition, there was a significant main effect for interview type. There was a significant effect of gender and time interval on facial recall. It was found that extraversion significantly predicted detail recall as did agreeableness and neuroticism. The present findings further extend previous research examining the most effective interviewing techniques for eyewitness recall. It also indicated that females can accurately recall faces after a time delay in comparison to men. Furthermore, these results also clearly indicate that gender and time interval play a significant role in facial recall. Finally, the findings have practical implications for the jury selection system. For example, attorneys and judges might be inclined to choose women over men for specific cases where eyewitness details may be crucial for conviction. In addition, they may also use facial shots in order to enhance eyewitness recall. Personality measures can assist detectives to determine if a suspect is suitable for an interview. If at all possible, administering personality test for jurors may help in determining certain personality types are more prone to error.

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Prior work has demonstrated that the sequential presentation of lineup members in eyewitness lineups can result in undesirable position effects. For example, some studies have shown that placing the suspect in later positions increases discriminability. However, the evidence for this late-position discriminability advantage is mixed and the processes by which the discriminability increase occurs are unclear. However, one theory in particular, diagnostic feature detection theory (DFDT) explicitly predicts a late-position discriminability increase. According to DFDT, because shared features across lineup members cannot be used as reliable recognition cues to guide identification, discounting these features from consideration improves recognition. In sequential lineups, when the suspect is in a later position, witnesses are exposed to more of these shared features and are expected to benefit from discounting. By contrast, when the suspect is in an earlier position, witnesses are exposed to fewer shared features, and hence do not have the same advantage under the assumptions of the DFDT framework. One reason for the mixed evidence across the literature might be due to variation in suspect-filler similarity relationship between lineup members across studies, which we expected would moderate late-position memory effects. With the above in mind, the primary goals of the present work were: (1) testing for position effects at different levels of suspect-filler (SF) similarity, which might help elucidate conflicting evidence from prior work, and (2) testing DFDT mechanisms by simultaneously manipulating both innocent-suspect-perpetrator (IS-P) similarity and SF similarity. We found no evidence for late-position increases in discriminability as predicted by DFDT; however, participants were more conservative in later positions, especially when SF similarity was low. Discriminability was most strongly influenced by IS-P similarity, and was maximized when both SF and IS-P similarity was low. Implications for theories of eyewitness memory, practical implications for policy recommendations, and future directions are discussed.

One of the problems in eyewitness recognition of offenders is their different ethnicity from the persons identifying them. This has been the subject of several scientific papers worldwide. Although the number of other ethnic groups in the Czech Republic grows, research into this area remains insufficient. Therefore, the present thesis focuses on ethnicity of offenders in the recognition process. Using video footage of an assault with Czech and Vietnamese offenders and subsequent mugshot facial recognition, the present thesis seeks to highlight the problem of a higher number of false identifications with persons having different ethnicity. Based on previous international research, the offenders' ethnicity is expected to have a negative impact on the ability to correctly identify perpetrators in the Czech Republic alike. The research showed a higher rate of false identifications of offenders with foreign nationality, but at the same time, nevertheless, found no relationship between correct identification of perpetrators with our and with foreign ethnicity. Keywords: recognition, eyewitness, testimony of witnesses, offender ethnicity, quantitative research.

Language barriers in eyewitness testimonies may pose threats toward witnesses’ accuracy, and consequently on the outcome of judicial procedures. The present study aims to investigate the credibility and the extent of reported detail information of eyewitnesses’ testimony of a crime event, when the testimony is given in witnesses’ first language, second language, or second language through interpreter. Moreover, the study examines whether eyewitness suggestibility is affected by the language to which the testimony is provided. Participants (N=60) were exposed to a mock crime event and subsequently performed memory tests about that event. Results showed no differences in accuracy of suggestibility between experimental conditions. The personality trait social desirability showed no relation to suggestibility or the extent of inaccurate detail information provided in the present study. The findings are discussed in the context of implications, limitations and future directions.