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Eyewitness identification: The complex issue of suspect-filler similarity
Citation
Lucas, CA and Brewer, N and Palmer, MA, Eyewitness identification: The complex issue of suspect-filler similarity, Psychology, Public Policy, and Law pp. 1-19. ISSN 1076-8971 (2020) [Refereed Article]
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Abstract
Current guidelines for selecting lineup fillers are imprecise. Consequently, filler characteristics likely
vary widely across lineups, potentially affecting identification decisions in important but unexplained
ways. We report 2 experiments investigating the impact of 1 source of variation, the number of relatively
high versus low similarity match-description fillers, on identification outcomes. Identifications following
a retention interval of a few minutes (Experiments 1 and 2) and several weeks (Experiment 2) were
examined. Increasing the number of high similarity lineup members within match-description lineups
increased choosing (characterized by more filler but fewer suspect identifications), decreased accuracy
and confidence and caused a poorer confidence-accuracy relationship. The changes to identification
outcomes as the number of high similarity fillers increased were attributable to decreased discriminability
and a relaxed criterion, with positive identifications requiring a lesser evidential discrepancy between
target and fillers. There was limited evidence of guilty and innocent suspect identifications being
differently affected by variations in the number of high similarity fillers and no evidence of suspect
discriminability being influenced. For decisions after a short retention interval, high confidence suspect
identifications were good predictors of accuracy; however, high similarity match-description fillers
undermined the predictive value of high confidence suspect identifications at the long retention interval.
Our results suggest that future research must explore methods for curbing variation in identification
patterns resulting from uncontrolled filler characteristics. Until then it is critical that identification
evidence be interpreted acknowledging that, even in lineups constructed following best practice guidelines, filler characteristics could have profoundly influenced the outcome.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Article |
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Keywords: | identification decisions, match-description, suspect-filler similarity, confidence- accuracy relationship |
Research Division: | Psychology |
Research Group: | Applied and developmental psychology |
Research Field: | Forensic psychology |
Objective Division: | Expanding Knowledge |
Objective Group: | Expanding knowledge |
Objective Field: | Expanding knowledge in psychology |
UTAS Author: | Palmer, MA (Dr Matt Palmer) |
ID Code: | 141991 |
Year Published: | 2020 |
Web of Science® Times Cited: | 1 |
Deposited By: | Psychology |
Deposited On: | 2020-12-07 |
Last Modified: | 2020-12-08 |
Downloads: | 0 |
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