2 - Steblay: eyewitness accuracy rates in police showup and lineup presentations

Question 1

What is a showup compared to a lineup?

Answer 1

Lineups: simultaneous or sequential

Showup: presentation of a single suspect

Question 2

What are the goals and hypotheses of this research?

Answer 2

Hypothesis: showups lead to higher false identification rates than lineups

Aim: compare eyewitness accuracy in showups vs lineups

Question 3

What was the overall frequency of choosing and of correct decisions for showups and lineups?

Answer 3

Frequency of choosing
-> more likely to make an identification in lineups than in showups (for both target present and absent)

Frequency of correct decisions
-> Showups resulted in more overall correct decisions than lineups
-> this does not differentiate between error types

Question 4

How did showups and lineups differ in target present conditions?

Answer 4

-> correct identification rates were roughly equal for showups and lineups

Question 5

How did showups and lineups differ in target absent conditions?

Answer 5

-> showups had higher correct rejection rates than lineups
-> lineups produced more total errors

Question 6

Why are showups inherently more suggestive?

Answer 6

There’s bias involved
-> clothing bias (appearance is especially relevant in showups)
-> instructional bias

Question 7

What is a lineup foil and its role?

Answer 7

lineup foil are people in the lineup known to be innocent
-> used to test accuracy of eyewitness
-> witnesses who choose a foil may be seen as less credible

-> Showups lack foils, so any rejection maintains witness credibility, even though it might be a false rejection