Response bias modulates the confidence‐accuracy relationship for both positive identifications and lineup rejections in a simultaneous lineup task

Abstract

AbstractIn recent years, the use of calibration analysis and confidence‐accuracy characteristic analysis has revealed the confidence‐accuracy relationship for positive identification (ID) made from a lineup is often strong. At the same time, the confidence‐accuracy relationship for lineup rejections is typically much weaker. Why the relationship is often weak for lineup rejections remains unclear. Here, we report two experiments testing a prediction that follows from signal detection theory. Specifically, this theory predicts that one determinant of the strength of the confidence‐accuracy relationship for both positive IDs and lineup rejections is response bias. Theoretically, inducing a more conservative response bias should weaken the confidence‐accuracy relationship for positive IDs while strengthening it for lineup rejections. The two experiments reported here support this prediction.