Access to abstract restricted until 05/2016. / Access to thesis restricted until 05/2016. / Department of Psychological Science

This research examined the influence of eyewitness identification decisions on participants in the role of police investigators. Undergraduate "investigators" interviewed confederate "witnesses" and then searched a computer database of potential suspects. The database included information on each suspect's physical description, prior criminal record, alibi, and fingerprints. Participants selected a suspect and estimated the probability that the suspect was guilty. Investigators subsequently administered a photo lineup to the witness and re-estimated the suspect's guilt. Investigators were greatly swayed by eyewitness decisions. If the witness identified the suspect probability estimates increased dramatically. If the witness identified an innocent lineup member or rejected the lineup,+ investigators' probability estimates dropped significantly, even when pre-lineup objective evidence (e.g., fingerprints) was strong. Eyewitness decisions similarly influenced investigators' confidence in the witness and willingness to arrest the suspect. Participant-investigators greatly overestimated the amount of information gain provided by eyewitness identifications.

Witnesses sometimes mistakenly identify innocent suspects in lineups from which the real culprit is absent, and those errors can have tragic consequences. Can we estimate in advance a witness’s susceptibility to making false identifications in culprit-absent lineups? Kantner and Lindsay (2012) found that response criterion on a standard test of old/new recognition (of faces or words) correlated with the likelihood of making lineup identifications. Four experiments tested the predictive utility of a two-alternative forced choice facial recognition test that included trials in which neither face had been studied. Through Experiment 3 we observed several weak predictive relationships, including confidence on the facial recognition test with confidence on the lineup test, but not the hypothesized relationship: that the rate of false alarms on the TA face recognition trials would predict false alarm rates on the target-absent lineup trials. Experiment 4 implemented a substantial increase in the number of face recognition trials displaying two non-studied faces (from 4 trials to 30) and the originally hypothesized relationship was found (r=.45). Implications for future research aimed at developing measures with real-world utility are discussed. / Graduate / 0633 / 0623 / 0384 / mjbldssr@uvic.ca

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2005. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 72 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 58-63).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2005. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed March 1, 2006). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references ( p. 113-116).

The present thesis examined the effects of anger on the completeness and accuracy of eyewitness free and cued recall and recognition performance. Anger was revealed by a recent survey as the emotion experienced by the majority of eyewitnesses to crime, so is particularly important in this context. Previous literature has tended to use generic concepts such as ‘emotion’ or ‘stress’ to investigate emotion effects, but this thesis sought to examine the effect of the specific emotion of anger on memory. Experiment 1 tested theoretical predictions regarding the effects of anger on encoding and retrieval processes. In line with these predictions, angry participants provide more complete descriptions of a perpetrator compared to neutral participants. However, angry participants provide less complete descriptions of the perpetrator’s actions than their neutral counterparts. This pattern of results was replicated throughout all experiments in this thesis. Experiment 2 revealed that anger has no effect on the completeness and accuracy of victim descriptions. Experiment 3 found that the pattern of anger effects observed for a younger adult sample were also found when older adults were tested. This prompted a statistical comparison of younger and older adults which found very few age effects and no interactions between age of the participant, experience of anger and the category of detail recalled. The final experiment thoroughly investigated the effects of anger on participants’ ability to recognise the perpetrator from a photographic lineup. The main findings of this thesis suggest that while angry eyewitnesses may be able to provide a more complete description of the perpetrator, they may be less able to describe what he did, and less able to accurately recognise him from a lineup than neutral eyewitnesses. These findings are discussed in terms of cognitive and meta-cognitive models of encoding and retrieval.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Drexel University, 2004. / Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 170-176).

This program of research examined whether mock-jurors could more accurately discriminate between correct and false eyewitness identifications after exposure to the identification procedure instead of—or in addition to—the witness’s testimony. In Experiment 1, 332 eyewitnesses exposed to staged crime videos attempted to identify the “criminal” from lineups. Lineups contained either the “criminal” or a replacement foil, were presented simultaneously or sequentially, and were conducted under double-blind, single-blind, or post-identification feedback conditions. In Experiment 2, 432 mock-jurors viewed a subset of the eyewitnesses from Experiment 1 (n = 48). Each mock-juror viewed a single eyewitness making their identification decision and/or testifying about the crime, their identification, and the officer. More mock-jurors believed that the eyewitnesses had made correct identifications if they viewed the testimony—with or without the identification procedure—compared to exposure to the identification procedure alone. Furthermore, more mock-jurors believed eyewitnesses who received post-identification feedback or had made their identifications from sequential lineups. These differences in belief, however, did not translate into a difference in accuracy; overall, mock-jurors believed 62.96% of correct identifications and 56.48% of false identifications. Exposure to the identification procedure did not improve mock-jurors ability to determine the accuracy of an identification; however, these mock-jurors were more aware of the post-identification feedback. Videotaping identification procedures may make triers of fact more aware of biased lineup procedures; nonetheless, exposure to these videotapes will not improve the accuracy of mock-jurors’ decisions. / Thesis (Ph.D, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2008-07-24 15:00:30.512

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tufts University, 2004. / Adviser: Lisa M. Shin. Submitted to the Dept. of Psychology. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 128-135). Access restricted to members of the Tufts University community. Also available via the World Wide Web;

Thesis (M.A.)--Rowan University, 2009. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references.