Target-absent Lineups Research Articles

Earwitnesses: effects of accent, retention and telephone

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of accent, telephone and a relatively long retention interval (3 or 8 weeks) on speaker identification. Three-hundred and sixty participants heard the target's voice and were asked to identify the target by means of a line-up consisting of 6 voices. Half of the participants were given a target-present line-up and the other half a target-absent line-up. The results showed that 24% of participants correctly identified the target in the target-present condition (hits), whereas 50% of participants incorrectly identified a person as the target in the target-absent condition (false alarms). The speaker with the standard-accented voice was more often correctly recognized than the speaker with the non-standard-accented voice. No difference was found between identification accuracy after one, three or eight weeks and between the telephone and non-telephone conditions. It can be concluded that there is a relatively high probability that an innocent defendant is identified as the perpetrator, even in a procedurally correct voice line-up (in this experiment 8%). Furthermore, reliability may be drastically reduced when the perpetrator has a strong accent, unfamiliar to the listener. On the other hand, reliability of a voice line-up seems not to be affected by a presentation over the telephone, as well as by a retention interval of at least 8 weeks.

Building face composites can harm lineup identification performance.

Face composite programs permit eyewitnesses to build likenesses of target faces by selecting facial features and combining them into an intact face. Research has shown that these composites are generally poor likenesses of the target face. Two experiments tested the proposition that this composite-building process could harm the builder's memory for the face. In Experiment 1 (n = 150), the authors used 50 different faces and found that the building of a composite reduced the chances that the person could later identify the original face from a lineup when compared with no composite control conditions or with yoked composite-exposure control conditions. In Experiment 2 (n = 200), the authors found that this effect generalized to a simulated-crime video, but mistaken identifications from target-absent lineups were not inflated by composite building.

The effects of post ‐identification feedback and age on retrospective eyewitness memory

AbstractTwo studies examined the effects of post‐identification feedback, age, and retention interval on participants' memories and beliefs about memories for a videotaped event, as captured by a store surveillance camera. After viewing the video, they were then asked to identify the suspect from a target‐absent photo line‐up. After making their identification, some participants were given information suggesting that their identification was correct, while others were given no information about the accuracy of their identification. In both experiments participants who received confirming feedback indicated they were more confident in their identification, paid more attention to the video, and that they were more willing to testify in court than those who received no feedback. The confidence inflation effects of post‐identification feedback did not vary with retention interval or age. These results are consistent with a position focusing on accessibility, which suggests that witnesses have little or no retrievable recollection of how sure they were at the time of their identification. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A Re-examination of the Effects of Biased Lineup Instructions in Eyewitness Identification.

A meta-analytic review of research comparing biased and unbiased instructions in eyewitness identification experiments showed an asymmetry, specifically that biased instructions led to a large and consistent decrease in accuracy in target-absent lineups, but produced inconsistent results for target-present lineups, with an average effect size near zero (N. M. Steblay, 1997). The results for target-present lineups are surprising, and are inconsistent with statistical decision theories (i.e., D. M. Green & J. A. Swets, 1966). A re-examination of the relevant studies and the meta-analysis of those studies shows clear evidence that correct identification rates do increase with biased lineup instructions, and that biased witnesses make correct identifications at a rate considerably above chance. Implications for theory, as well as police procedure and policy, are discussed.

A re-examination of the effects of biased lineup instructions in eyewitness identification.

A meta-analytic review of research comparing biased and unbiased instructions in eyewitness identification experiments showed an asymmetry; specifically, that biased instructions led to a large and consistent decrease in accuracy in target-absent lineups, but produced inconsistent results for target-present lineups, with an average effect size near zero (Steblay, 1997). The results for target-present lineups are surprising, and are inconsistent with statistical decision theories (i.e., Green & Swets, 1966). A re-examination of the relevant studies and the meta-analysis of those studies shows clear evidence that correct identification rates do increase with biased lineup instructions, and that biased witnesses make correct identifications at a rate considerably above chance. Implications for theory, as well as police procedure and policy, are discussed.

A Meta-Analytic Review of the Effects of High Stress on Eyewitness Memory.

In the past 30 years researchers have examined the impact of heightened stress on the fidelity of eyewitness memory. Meta-analyses were conducted on 27 independent tests of the effects of heightened stress on eyewitness identification of the perpetrator or target person and separately on 36 tests of eyewitness recall of details associated with the crime. There was considerable support for the hypothesis that high levels of stress negatively impact both types of eyewitness memory. Meta-analytic Z-scores, whether unweighted or weighted by sample size, ranged from -5.40 to -6.44 (high stress condition-low stress condition). The overall effect sizes were -.31 for both proportion of correct identifications and accuracy of eyewitness recall. Effect sizes were notably larger for target-present than for target-absent lineups, for eyewitness identification studies than for face recognition studies and for eyewitness studies employing a staged crime than for eyewitness studies employing other means to induce stress.

EYEWITNESS RECALL AND PHOTO IDENTIFICATION: A FIELD EXPERIMENT

Some 590 men and women were tested in public places for interrogative recall and photo identification of a young woman to whom they had spoken for approximately 15 seconds, either 2 minutes earlier or 4 hours earlier. The target was seen originally either with or without a baseball cap and dark sunglasses. Witnesses were either prepared or not prepared at the time of the encounter for a subsequent memory test. Half of the witnesses were given imagery retrieval instructions or standard retrieval instructions prior to the two memory tests. A separate group of 379 introductory psychology students attempted to predict the performance of the eyewitnesses. Witness preparation was of more importance for recall of clothing characteristics than for physical characteristics. Witness preparation, target disguise, retention interval, gender of witnesses, and retrieval instructions had no significant main effects on identification. Forty-nine per cent of the witnesses given the target-present lineup correctly identified the target, and 62% correctly rejected the target-absent lineup. Student's beliefs in the accuracy of recall and identification were not consistent with eyewitnesses’ performance.

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.

Earwitness identification over the telephone and in field settings

Earwitnesses were asked to describe and identify the voice of a young woman to whom they had spoken approximately five minutes earlier either in a naturalistic field setting or over the telephone. Witnesses were given a single tape-recorded voice of either the target or a highly similar foil, or a target present or a target absent six-person voice line-up. Half of the witnesses in the naturalistic settings were given a photograph of the target as a retrieval cue when they attempted to describe and identify the voice of the target. Witnesses gave few descriptions of the speaker’s voice. Voice identification was poor in both types of setting. Those witnesses who were prepared for a memory test were superior to non-prepared witnesses on the subsequent identification test. Photographic retrieval cues did not influence voice descriptions, but did minimize false identifications on the target absent line-up for witnesses prepared for the test. The six-person line-up proved to be significantly superior to the one-person lineup in minimizing false identifications of the most highly similar sounding foil.

Descriptions and identifications of strangers by youth and adult eyewitnesses.

Two studies varying target gender and mode of target exposure were conducted to compare the quantity, nature, and accuracy of free recall person descriptions provided by youths and adults. In addition, the relation among age, identification accuracy, and number of descriptors reported was considered. Youths (10-14 years) reported fewer descriptors than adults. Exterior facial descriptors (e.g., hair items) were predominant and accurately reported by youths and adults. Accuracy was consistently problematic for youths when reporting body descriptors (e.g., height, weight) and interior facial features. Youths reported a similar number of descriptors when making accurate versus inaccurate identification decisions. This pattern also was consistent for adults. With target-absent lineups, the difference in the number of descriptors reported between adults and youths was greater when making a false positive versus correct rejection.

Eyewitness recognition errors: the effects of mugshot viewing and choosing in young and old adults.

Eyewitness memory is vulnerable to information encountered prior to a lineup. Young (18-30 years) and older (60-80 years) witnesses viewed a crime video. Some witnesses were then exposed to mugshots of innocent suspects that included a critical foil. After a 48-h delay, all the witnesses took part in a target-absent lineup that included the critical foil and five new foils. Witnesses who picked one of the mugshots as the likely perpetrator showed inflated rates of choosing the critical foil from the lineup. Context reinstatement instructions did not reduce choices of innocent foils following mugshot exposure. Despite age-related increases in false choosing, age did not qualify other effects. The results are discussed in terms of commitment, source memory, and gist-based processing.

Deception in Eyewitness Identification

One-hundred twenty-eight undergraduates were shown a videotape of a staged crime of a young man abducting a child. Participants were instructed to role-play eyewitness behaviors in which they (a) lied to protect the perpetrator; (b) lied to protect the perpetrator but told the truth about the child; (c) lied to ensure the conviction of the perpetrator; or (d) responded truthfully and accurately to the best of their ability. One week later, participants were given a target-present or target-absent photo lineup of both the perpetrator and the child-victim. Participants instructed to lie to protect the perpetrator consistently stated he was not present as opposed to selecting an innocent person. In addition, participants lying to protect the perpetrator were significantly quicker to make identification decisions than participants attempting to make an accurate identification. There were no significant differences between groups in identification performance or in decision times involving the child lineup.

Identification abilities of children: Does a verbal description hurt face recognition?

The majority of research conducted on child eyewitness identification lineup performance has found that children are less accurate than adults at identifying the perpetrator correctly, or indeed, not identifying anyone in a target absent lineup. The standard procedure involved in setting up a lineup is to gain descriptions of the perpetrator from the witnesses. However, Schooler and Engster-Schooler (1990) suggest that gaining a verbal description of the perpetrator may later interfere with identification performance because the verbal memory overshadows the visual memory (verbal overshadowing). As yet there appears to have been no systematic investigations of verbal overshadowing in children. Fifty-two children aged 8–9 years witnessed a live event in their classroom, after a 24-hour delay they were randomly assigned to a description/no description condition, and then viewed either target present lineups or target absent lineups. The results revealed no verbal overshadowing effects. The children were more accurate on target present lineups than on target absent lineups. The null results are discussed with reference to the role of retrieval instructions, the quality of face descriptions and the processes governing decisions in target absent as compared to target present lineups.

The confidence-accuracy relationship in eyewitness identification: The effects of reflection and disconfirmation on correlation and calibration.

Participants viewed a simulated crime and attempted an identification from an 8-person target-present or target-absent lineup. The authors examined identification confidence-accuracy relations, contrasting a control condition (n = 310) with 2 manipulations designed to improve confidence scaling. Before indicating confidence, participants reflected on encoding and identification test conditions (n = 316) or suggested hypotheses about why their identification decision might have been wrong (n = 318). Confidence-accuracy correlations were weak and did not differ across conditions. However, for positive identifications, confidence and accuracy were well calibrated in the experimental conditions, although not in the control condition; similar patterns were observed for lineup rejections. Explanations for calibration differences in terms of discrimination difficulty, (mis)match between encoding and test stimuli, and the availability of confidence cues were advanced.

Aging and lineup performance at long retention intervals: effects of metamemory and context reinstatement.

Young (18-30 years) and older (62-79 years) adults (N = 96) engaged in a 20-min live interaction with the future target in a lineup task. One month later, participants were interviewed about the events in the prior encounter (with or without context reinstatement), and then they saw a target-present (TP) or target-absent (TA) lineup. The lineup was followed by the Benton Face Recognition Test (A. Benton, A. Sivan, K. Hamsher, N. Varney, & O. Spreen, 1994), which correlated positively with accuracy in TP, especially for young adults. False identification in TA was associated with (a) higher scores on a memory self-efficacy scale and (b) higher recall of information about the initial event, although only for seniors. Results suggested that age-related increases in false identification generalize to ecologically valid conditions and that seniors' performance on lineups is negatively related to verbal recall as well as to self-reports of satisfactory experiences with memory in life.

The effect of exposure to multiple lineups on face identification accuracy.

This study examines the conditions under which an intervening lineup affects identification accuracy on a subsequent lineup. One hundred and sixty adults observed a photograph of one target individual for 60 s. One week later, they viewed an intervening target-absent lineup and were asked to identify the target individual. Two days later, participants were shown one of three 6-person lineups that included a different photograph of the target face (present or absent), a foil face from the intervening lineup (present or absent), plus additional foil faces. The hit rate was higher when the foil face from the intervening lineup was absent from the test lineup and the false alarm rate was greater when the target face was absent from the test lineup. The results suggest that simply being exposed to an innocent suspect in an intervening lineup, whether that innocent suspect is identified by the witness or not, increases the probability of misidentifying the innocent suspect and decreases the probability of correctly identifying the true perpetrator in a subsequent test lineup. The implications of these findings both for police lineup procedures and for the interpretation of lineup results in the courtroom are discussed.

Does race influence measures of lineup fairness?

Little attention has been paid to cross-race effects on lineup fairness. Brigham demonstrated that lineup construction is influenced by race and that the mock-witness task may be influenced by racial differences. Two experiments extend our knowledge of cross-race issues in the measurement of lineup fairness to include target-absent lineups, descriptions based on viewing staged crimes, and Asian as well as Black and White participants. The results are mixed with some evidence suggesting little or no impact of race on measures of lineup fairness while other evidence indicates the opposite. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Identification accuracy of children versus adults: a meta-analysis.

Identification accuracy of children and adults was examined in a meta-analysis. Preschoolers (M = 4 years) were less likely than adults to make correct identifications. Children over the age of 5 did not differ significantly from adults with regard to correct identification rate. Children of all ages examined were less likely than adults to correctly reject a target-absent lineup. Even adolescents (M = 12-13 years) did not reach an adult rate of correct rejection. Compared to simultaneous lineup presentation, sequential lineups increased the child-adult gap for correct rejections. Providing child witnesses with identification practice or training did not increase their correct rejection rates. Suggestions for children's inability to correctly reject target-absent lineups are discussed. Future directions for identification research are presented.

Social influence in eyewitness recall: A meta-analytic review of lineup instruction effects.

Past research has considered the impact of biased police lineup instructions upon eyewitness lineup performance. Biased instructions either suggest to the eyewitness that the perpetrator is in the lineup or otherwise discourage a “no choice” response. A meta-analysis of 18 studies was employed to review the hypothesis that biased instructions lead to greater willingness to choose and less accurate lineup identifications than do unbiased instructions. The role of moderating variables in the instruction procedure was also considered. In support of the hypothesis, a significantly higher level of choosing followed biased instructions. Lineup type moderated performance accuracy, however. For target-absent lineups the increased level of choosing following biased instructions resulted in reduced identification accuracy. Biased instructions within a target-present lineup generated a higher level of confidence, but had minimal impact on accuracy. Implications for police practice are discussed.

Increasing correct identifications by children

Four new lineup procedures were examined with the goal of increasingchildren's identification accuracy. Participants (329 children aged 10 and11 years, 426 children aged 12 to 14 years, and 265 adults) were presentedwith either a target-present or target-absent lineup. Proceduralmodifications included providing a salient "I don't know" response option,extending ‘standard’ instructions, and modeling correct responses eitherusing an identification demonstration video or a handout. These conditionswere compared to a ‘standard’ (control) lineup procedure. Extending‘standard’ instructions increased correct identifications by the youngerchildren. Presenting a salient "I don't know" response increased overallchoosing for both target-present and target-absent lineups. Experimentalprocedures did not influence correct rejection rates. These data demonstratea variety of techniques that may be useful for improving the identificationaccuracy of child witnesses. Future directions are discussed.