Lineup Identification Accuracy Research Articles

Eyewitness recall, lineup identification, and verbal and visual memory among chronic cannabis users after a minimum of 24‐h abstinence

AbstractResearch has begun to investigate the reliability of cannabis‐intoxicated eyewitnesses; however, no studies have evaluated eyewitness memory among chronic cannabis users after a minimum 24‐h abstinence. This study compared cannabis users' (n = 23) and nonusers' (n = 26) eyewitness recall/identification and investigated the relationship between eyewitness memory and neuropsychological functioning. Users demonstrated better visual recognition relative to nonusers. Groups' neuropsychological performance was otherwise similar. Regarding eyewitness memory, users recalled more inaccurate crime details when cued, whereas total accurate and inaccurate details recalled were similar. Neither user status, lineup type, their interaction, nor education were credible predictors of lineup identification accuracy. Verbal memory performance and years of education, but not user status, credibly predicted eyewitness recall accuracy. Findings suggest that cannabis‐user eyewitnesses may require special consideration regarding police interviewing techniques; however, additional research is necessary to determine the conditions in which chronic cannabis users are reliable or unreliable eyewitnesses.

Pre-identification confidence is related to eyewitness lineup identification accuracy across heterogeneous encoding conditions.

Eyewitness research has generally failed to show an association between eyewitnesses' pre-identification confidence in their ability to identify the perpetrator from a lineup and their subsequent identification accuracy. However, this observed lack of an association may be an artifact of methodologies in which witnesses experienced homogenous encoding conditions, which would tend to restrict the range of witnesses' confidence, thereby effectively weakening its relationship with subsequent identification accuracy. The current study examined whether pre-ID confidence is associated with subsequent lineup identification accuracy when there is variability in encoding conditions across witnesses. We hypothesized (a) that there would be a significant relationship between pre-ID confidence and subsequent lineup identification accuracy across heterogeneous encoding conditions as assessed via calibration and CAC analysis; and (b) that witnesses' self-reports regarding their underlying memory strength would be at least as predictive of their subsequent lineup identification accuracy as pre-ID confidence. Participant-witnesses (n = 203, Mage = 21.5; 71% Female; 67% Hispanic and/or Latino/a) viewed a mock crime video under varying encoding conditions and were asked to make both a pre-ID confidence assessment and memory strength assessment. After a brief filler task, participants made a lineup identification decision and made a post-ID confidence judgment. This process was then repeated 7 more times (producing 8 identification decisions per participant). Calibration analyses indicated that pre-identification confidence was moderately calibrated with subsequent lineup identification accuracy across witnesses with heterogeneous encoding conditions. Furthermore, confidence-accuracy characteristic curves indicated that memory strength measures obtained from the witness immediately after the witnessed event were also predictive of subsequent identification accuracy. Pre-ID confidence and other memory strength judgments are in fact predictive of identification accuracy under the ecologically valid circumstance that there is variability in encoding across witnesses. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Digital Detectives: Websleuthing Reduces Eyewitness Identification Accuracy in Police Lineups.

Eyewitnesses to crimes sometimes search for a culprit on social media before viewing a police lineup, but it is not known whether this affects subsequent lineup identification accuracy. The present online study was conducted to address this. Two hundred and eighty-five participants viewed a mock crime video, and after a 15–20 min delay either (i) viewed a mock social media site including the culprit, (ii) viewed a mock social media site including a lookalike, or (iii) completed a filler task. A week later, participants made an identification from a photo lineup. It was predicted that searching for a culprit on social media containing the lookalike (rather than the culprit) would reduce lineup identification accuracy. There was a significant association between social media exposure and lineup accuracy for the Target Present lineup (30% more of the participants who saw the lookalike on social media failed to positively identify the culprit than participants in the other conditions), but for the Target Absent lineup (which also included the lookalike) there was no significant association with lineup identification accuracy. The results suggest that if an eyewitness sees a lookalike (where they are expecting to see the culprit) when conducting a self-directed search on social media, they are less likely to subsequently identify the culprit in the formal ID procedure.

Supplemental Material for Pre-Identification Confidence Is Related to Eyewitness Lineup Identification Accuracy Across Heterogeneous Encoding Conditions

Supplemental Material for Pre-Identification Confidence Is Related to Eyewitness Lineup Identification Accuracy Across Heterogeneous Encoding Conditions

The Effect of Facial Composite Construction on Eyewitness Identification Accuracy in an Ecologically Valid Paradigm

Previous research has produced equivocal results with regard to whether facial composite creation affects subsequent eyewitness identification accuracy, but the most widely publicized view is that creating a composite impairs the ability to later recognize the perpetrator from a line-up. In our first experiment, we examined this effect using several ecologically valid elements including a live staged crime, trained police officers, and a long delay between construction and identification, albeit with only a short delay between crime and composite construction. Composite construction did not significantly affect line-up identification accuracy. Experiment 2 replicated this result using a laboratory-based design and sequential line-up task, eliminating the possibly confounding effect of differential levels of motivation and relative judgments. Taken together, the experiments suggest composite creation may not negatively impact subsequent line-up accuracy, regardless of whether an ecologically valid method or more standard laboratory testing was used.

Lineup identification accuracy: The effects of alcohol, target presence, confidence ratings, and response time

Despite the intoxication of many eyewitnesses at crime scenes, only four published studies to date have investigated the effects of alcohol intoxication on eyewitness identification performance. While one found intoxication significantly increased false identification rates from target absent showups, three found no such effect using the more traditional lineup procedure. The present study sought to further explore the effects of alcohol intoxication on identification performance and examine whether accurate decisions from intoxicated witnesses could be postdicted by confidence and response times. One hundred and twenty participants engaged in a study examining the effects of intoxication (control, placebo, and mild intoxication) and target presence on identification performance. Participants viewed a simultaneous lineup one week after watching a mock crime video of a man attempting to steal cars. Ethanol intoxication (0.6 ml/kg) was found to make no significant difference to identification accuracy and such identifications from intoxicated individuals were made no less confidently or slowly than those from sober witnesses. These results are discussed with respect to the previous research examining intoxicated witness identification accuracy and the misconceptions the criminal justice system holds about the accuracy of such witnesses.

Holistic Facial Composite Construction and Subsequent Lineup Identification Accuracy: Comparing Adults and Children

ABSTRACTWhen the police have no suspect, they may ask an eyewitness to construct a facial composite of that suspect from memory. Faces are primarily processed holistically, and recently developed computerized holistic facial composite systems (e.g., EFIT-V) have been designed to match these processes. The reported research compared children aged 6–11 years with adults on their ability to construct a recognizable EFIT-V composite. Adult constructor's EFIT-Vs received significantly higher composite-suspect likeness ratings from assessors than children's, although there were some notable exceptions. In comparison to adults, the child constructors also overestimated the composite-suspect likeness of their own EFIT-Vs. In a second phase, there were no differences between adult controls and constructors in correct identification rates from video lineups. However, correct suspect identification rates by child constructors were lower than those of child controls, suggesting that a child's memory for the suspect can be adversely influenced by composite construction. Nevertheless, all child constructors coped with the demands of the EFIT-V system, and the implications for research, theory, and the criminal justice system practice are discussed.

Eye Remember What Happened: Eye‐Closure Improves Recall of Events but not Face Recognition

SummaryEye‐closure improves event recall. We investigated whether eye‐closure can also facilitate subsequent performance on lineup identification (Experiment 1) and face recognition tasks (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, participants viewed a theft, recalled the event with eyes open or closed, mentally rehearsed the perpetrator's face with eyes open or closed, and viewed a target‐present or target‐absent lineup. Eye‐closure improved event recall, but did not significantly affect lineup identification accuracy. Experiment 2 employed a face recognition paradigm with high statistical power to permit detection of potentially small effects. Participants viewed 20 faces and were later asked to recognize the faces. Thirty seconds before the recognition task, participants either completed an unrelated distracter task (control condition), or were instructed to think about the face with their eyes open (rehearsal condition) or closed (eye‐closure condition). We found no differences between conditions in discrimination accuracy or response criterion. Potential explanations and practical implications are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Selecting fillers on emotional appearance improves lineup identification accuracy.

Mock witnesses sometimes report using criminal stereotypes to identify a face from a lineup, a tendency known as criminal face bias. Faces are perceived as criminal-looking if they appear angry. We tested whether matching the emotional appearance of the fillers to an angry suspect can reduce criminal face bias. In Study 1, mock witnesses (n = 226) viewed lineups in which the suspect had an angry, happy, or neutral expression, and we varied whether the fillers matched the expression. An additional group of participants (n = 59) rated the faces on criminal and emotional appearance. As predicted, mock witnesses tended to identify suspects who appeared angrier and more criminal-looking than the fillers. This tendency was reduced when the lineup fillers matched the emotional appearance of the suspect. Study 2 extended the results, testing whether the emotional appearance of the suspect and fillers affects recognition memory. Participants (n = 1,983) studied faces and took a lineup test in which the emotional appearance of the target and fillers was varied between subjects. Discrimination accuracy was enhanced when the fillers matched an angry target's emotional appearance. We conclude that lineup member emotional appearance plays a critical role in the psychology of lineup identification. The fillers should match an angry suspect's emotional appearance to improve lineup identification accuracy.

Appearance-change instruction effects on eyewitness lineup identification accuracy are not moderated by amount of appearance change.

Instructing witnesses that a criminal may have changed appearance prior to showing them a lineup has been shown to increase false identifications without increasing correct identifications (S. D. Charman & G. L. Wells, 2007, Is the appearance-change instruction a good idea? Law and Human Behavior, Vol. 31, pp. 3-22). However, the generalizability of the effects of this appearance-change instruction (ACI) is unknown, and there are reasons to believe that the instruction's effects may be moderated by the amount of appearance change the criminal has actually undergone. The current study tested this hypothesis. Undergraduate students (N = 315) were exposed to a series of target faces and lineups, some of which contained the target and some of which did not, and made identification decisions. Half of the participants received a standard ACI prior to each lineup; the other half did not. The targets varied with respect to the amount to which their appearance had changed. Results indicated that the ACI inflated false identifications without inflating correct identifications, and that these effects did not depend on the amount of appearance change the target had undergone. Current recommendations to administer the ACI seem to be unfounded and may be harmful to the reliability of identification evidence.

Stress, Supportive Interviewing, and Children's Identification Accuracy

Although little is known about the effects of stress on children’s lineup identification accuracy, stress appears to be detrimental to adults’ identification accuracy. If stress is similarly detrimental to children, it is important to understand why such effects occur and, if possible, identify ways to mitigate these effects. The current study investigated the effects of stress on children’s identification abilities and whether interviewer-provided social support moderated these effects. 159 7-8 and 12-14 year olds completed a high or low stress version of a challenging laboratory task that involved interacting with an adult male and female experimenter. Two weeks later, children’s memory for the interaction, including the identity of the male experimenter via a photo lineup, was examined. Lineups varied in whether the identification target was present or absent, and interviewers behaved in either a supportive or nonsupportive manner. Identification accuracy, especially in terms of correctly rejecting the target absent line ups, was highest among children who experienced the high stress laboratory task and were later interviewed in a supportive manner. Results have implications for forensic settings in which child witnesses are asked to identify a perpetrator encountered under stressful circumstances.

Children's Susceptibility to Misidentifying a Familiar Bystander From a Lineup: When Younger is Better.

Children from 5 to 12 years of age (N = 779) were shown a videotape where a preschool teacher has money stolen from her wallet. Children were shown a lineup, and for children in the bystander condition, the lineup contained a familiar bystander without the thief. Children in the control condition viewed the same lineup but they had not seen the bystander in the videotape. Among the 11-12-year olds, participants in the bystander condition were significantly more likely than control participants to misidentify the familiar bystander. This effect was not found in children from 5 to 10 years of age. When children in the control condition were shown a lineup that contained the thief without the bystander, the 11-12-year olds were significantly more likely than the younger children to correctly identify the thief. These findings demonstrate that age can both increase and decrease the accuracy of children's lineup identification accuracy depending on the task at hand and the content of a lineup.

Lineup identification by children: effects of clothing bias.

This study examined effects of clothing cues on children's identification accuracy from lineups. Four- to 14-year-olds (n = 228) saw 12 video clips of individuals, each wearing a distinctly colored shirt. After watching each clip children were presented with a target-present or target-absent photo lineup. Three clothing conditions were included. In 2 conditions all lineup members wore the same colored shirt; in the third, biased condition, the shirt color of only one individual matched that seen in the preceding clip (the target in target-present trials and the replacement in target-absent trials). Correct identifications of the target in target-present trials were most frequent in the biased condition, whereas in target-absent trials the biased condition led to more false identifications of the target replacement. Older children were more accurate than younger children, both in choosing the target from target-present lineups and rejecting target-absent lineups. These findings suggest that a simple clothing cue such as shirt color can have a significant impact on children's lineup identification accuracy.

The aging eyewitness: effects of age on face, delay, and source-memory ability.

As a way to examine the nature of age-related differences in lineup identification accuracy, young (16-33 years) and older (60-82 years) witnesses viewed two similar videotaped incidents, one involving a young perpetrator and the other involving an older perpetrator. The incidents were followed by two separate lineups, one for the younger perpetrator and one for the older perpetrator. When the test delay was short (35 min), the young and older witnesses performed similarly on the lineups, but when the tests were delayed by 1 week, the older witnesses were substantially less accurate. When the target was absent from the lineups, the older witnesses made more false alarm errors, particularly when the faces were young. When the target was present in the lineups, correct identifications by both young and older witnesses were positively correlated with a measure of source recollection derived from a separate face-recognition task. Older witnesses scored poorly on this measure, suggesting that source-recollection deficits are partially responsible for age-related differences in performance on the lineup task.

Enhancing lineup identification accuracy: Two codes are better than one.

Enhancing lineup identification accuracy: Two codes are better than one.

Enhancing lineup identification accuracy: two codes are better than one.

Ways of improving identification accuracy were explored by comparing the conventional visual lineup with an auditory/visual lineup, one that paired color photographs with voice recordings. This bimodal lineup necessitated sequential presentation of lineup members; Experiment 1 showed that performance in sequential lineups was better than performance in traditional simultaneous lineups. In Experiments 2A and 2B unimodal and bimodal lineups were compared by using a multiple-lineup paradigm: Ss viewed 3 videotaped episodes depicting standard police procedures and were tested in 4 sequential lineups. Bimodal lineups were more diagnostic than either visual or auditory lineups alone. The bimodal lineup led to a 126% improvement in number of correct identifications over the conventional visual lineup, with no concomitant increase in number of false identifications. These results imply strongly that bimodal procedures should be adopted in real-world lineups. The nature of memorial processes underlying this bimodal advantage is discussed.