Person descriptions and person identifications: Verbal overshadowing or recognition criterion shift?

Abstract

In order to test rival theoretical accounts of the verbal overshadowing effect, participants (N=144) either gave no description or provided written descriptions after viewing a crime on video. Half of the describers reread their target descriptions prior to attempting to identify the thief either in a target-absent or target-present lineup 1 week later. Rereaders showed a criterion shift, that is, they less frequently chose somebody from the lineup than the other two groups. Within rereaders, description accuracy and choosing were positively correlated whereas number of incorrect details reported were negatively correlated with choosing. For describers that did not reread their description, there was a significant positive correlation between description accuracy and identification accuracy, and a negative correlation between number of incorrect descriptors and identification accuracy. The results lend support to the decision criterion shift approach (Clare & Lewandowsky, 2004) and shed light on the decision processes underlying target description and identification.