eyewitness testimony and identification Flashcards
name ways psychology research has improved legal procedures through research.
- cognitive interview techniques.
- re-appreciation of EWT.
- EVO-FIT more reliable imaging.
- double blind line up procedures.
identify issues in applying psych to real world problems.
- ecological validity
- ethical issues
- effect size
give reasons why EWT is so error prone.
- poor view of events
- do not appreciate events significance at the time.
- changes in suspects appearance.
- effects of witness stress/arousal
- effects of post-event info
- relationship between witness accuracy and confidence
- effects of expectation
state the difference between system variables and estimator variables.
system variables are variables under control of the legal system, whereas estimator variables are not.
how can memory distortion occur?
- own expectations
- others accounts
describe heroes-dedson ‘law’ proposal.
if moderately stressed performance is good, too aroused and under aroused means poor performance.
why are experiments of stress not ecologically valid?
difficult to investigate stress experimentally as lab studies are highly controlled, participants know they are ‘fake’ so do not experience real stress.
give evidence for memory conformity.
- more likely to recall misinformation provided by co-witnesses than from leading questions.
- 86% of witnesses in a study said they discussed events with co-witnesses.
why does memory conformity occur?
- witnesses regard other accounts as more reliable
- witnesses try to present themselves favourably to other witnesses.
describe the US innocence project.
- 351 exonerations, over 75% involved EWT identification
e. g. Antonio beaver.
state two ways why id parades are unreliable.
- false positive (false id)
- false negative (failing to identify suspect as present).
which out of: target-present or target-absent resulted in more misidentification.
target-absent.
identify why eyewitness identification is unreliable.
- poor face recognition
- witness misattribution of feelings of familiarity.
- difficultly in ensuring line-ups are unbiased.
- weak relationship between witness confidence and accuracy.
what percentage of cashiers falsely accepted fraudulent cards, and what percentage falsely rejected legitimate cards?
- 50% fraud
- 10% legitmate
what is meant by the butcher of bus phenomenon.
recognise someone but fail to put a name to the face.
name the two parts of structural encoding (B+Y).
- expression
- recognition
when witnesses described the criminals appearance to 41 non-witnesses, how many non-witnesses were successful in identification?
25/41.
what type of lineup causes a prototype effect?
foils being selected on similarity to suspect.
identify the difference between simultaneous and sequential line-ups.
simultaneous lineups take a relative judgment strategy whereas sequential lineups take an absolute judgement strategy (reduce false-pos choices).
which type on lineup led to more correct identifications with target present?
simultaneous.
which type on lineup led to more correct rejections with target absent?
sequential.
is use of the hybrid procedure successful?
no - increases error more than it increases correct identification.
state the five US court criteria for evaluating EW id.
- opportunity (of witness view)
- attention (of witness)
- accuracy (witness description)
- certainty (of witness)
- time (between crime and id procedure).
what does the relationship between confidence and witness accuracy range between?
0.08 and 0.42.
true or false: giving confirming feedback made no difference to the witnesses confidence in identification.
false - all feedback types distorted confidence ratings of how well witnesses saw criminal.
name what type of feedback inflated retrospective certainty of inaccurate witnesses. did this feedback have the same effect on accurate witnesses?
confirming feedback.
not change accurate witnesses certainty.
name the three SCIF stages.
- assessment stage (internal cues)
- search stage (external cues)
- evaluation stage (judgement if credible cues).
what type of feedback had robust effects on retrospective certainty, view, memory and attention.
confirming effects.
name recommendations for good lineups.
- use of fillers
- blind administration
- warn witness suspect may or may not be present.
- sequential presentation
- record witness assessment of certainty at time id is made.
- no witness feedback about id performance.
name the SCIF stages.
- assessment stage: internal cues
- search stage: external cues
- evaluation stage: make judgement.
name two types of face recall systems.
- photofit
- evofit
what percentage of participants successfully identified the 6 original faces from a set of 36 photofits.
12.5%
sketching/photofit was better when target was reconstructed from memory.
photofit.
true or false: verbal descriptions are better than photofit.
true.
give reasons why face recall systems are so poor.
- limitations in eyewitnesses themselves
- equipment limitations
- problems in method of construction
- inappropriate ‘feature-based’ theoretical basis, at odds with ‘configural-based’ processing.
- minor errors in features and/or configuration impede face recognition.
describe the relationship between rated quality of a P’s photofit constructions and quality of their verbal descriptions.
there is no correlation.
are faces more easily recognised upside down, or the right way up?
upside down.
are features recognised better if they are presented within a whole face or in isolation?
whole face.
familiar/ unfamiliar faces are recognised better from external features.
unfamiliar.
suggest ways to improve recognisability of composites.
- use multiple composites to aid recognition
- improve composite systems
- reduce stereotypes and expectations
how can recognition rate be increased when using evofit?
- use cognitive interview of witness
- blurring external features
- vertical stretching of finished composites
