Long Retention Intervals Impair the Confidence-Accuracy Relationship for Eyewitness Recall

A growing body of research suggests that confidence judgements can provide a useful indicator of memory accuracy under some conditions. One factor known to affect eyewitness accuracy, yet rarely examined in the confidence-accuracy literature, is retention interval. Using calibration analyses, we investigated how retention interval affects the confidence-accuracy relationship for eyewitness recall. In total, 611 adults watched a mock crime video and completed a cued-recall test either immediately, after 1 week, or after 1 month. Long (1 month) delays led to lower memory accuracy, lower confidence judgements, and impaired the confidence-accuracy relationship compared to shorter (immediate and 1 week) delays. Long-delay participants who reported very high levels of confidence tended to be over-confident in the accuracy of their memories compared to other participants. Self-rated memory ability, however, did not predict eyewitness confidence or the confidence-accuracy relationship. We discuss the findings in relation to cue-utilization theory and a retrieval-fluency account.

Self-reported face recognition abilities for own and other-race faces

Purpose The other-race effect shows that people are better recognizing faces from their own-race compared to other-race faces. This effect can have dramatic consequences in applied scenarios whereby face identification is paramount, such as eyewitness identification. This paper aims to investigate whether observers have insights into their ability to recognize other-race faces. Design/methodology/approach Chinese ethnic observers performed objective measures of own- and other-race face recognition – the Cambridge Face Memory Test Chinese and the Cambridge Face Memory Test original; the PI20 – a 20-items self-reported measured of general face recognition abilities; and the ORE20 – a new developed 20-items self-reported measure of other-race face recognition. Findings Recognition of own-race faces was better compared to other-race faces. This effect was also evident at a phenomenological level, as observers reported to be worse recognizing other-race faces compared to own-race faces. Additionally, although a moderate correlation was found between own-race face recognition abilities and the PI20, individual differences in the recognition of other-race faces was only poorly associated with observers’ scores in the ORE20. Research limitations/implications These results suggest that observers’ insights to recognize faces are more consistent and reliable for own-race faces. Practical implications Self-reported measures of other-race recognition could produce misleading results. Thus, when evaluating eyewitness’ accuracy identifying other-race faces, objective measures should be used. Originality/value In contrast to own race recognition, people have very limited insights into their recognition abilities for other race faces.

The Role of Metamemory in Eyewitness Testimony

Estimating eyewitness memory accuracy is crucial in forensic settings, given the need for efficient investigations and the negative consequences of erroneous testimony. In fact, mistaken identifications of innocent suspects have contributed to numerous miscarriages of justice, which often results in many years of innocent lives spent in prison. Eyewitness psychology research has established that eyewitness memory is not a permanent record of perceived events and may be tainted by a number of different factors. Witnesses recollections of important facts not only deteriorate over time but can also be negatively distorted by new information introduced after the original experience. In this thesis, the overarching goal of the research was to test the utility of metamemory assessments as postdictors of eyewitness performance. Metamemory research is essential for a comprehensive understanding of how people use and perceive their own memory, but it has not yet been thoroughly explored in eyewitness settings. Six experiments were conducted, providing new findings that help elucidate the relationship between metamemory and eyewitness accuracy, confidence, and over/underconfidence in forensic settings. More specifically, I investigate how self-ratings of memory ability relate to eyewitness performance in the identification and free recall contexts. These experiments provided initial evidence that some metamemory factors may be important indicators of eyewitness identification accuracy and confidence. It has also been found that eyewitness-specific metamemory factors are predictive of identification accuracy for both biased and unbiased lineups. In this thesis, I summarize the main findings of this novel line of research, presenting the challenges and prospects facing future eyewitness metamemory research.

Self-reported face recognition abilities for own and other-race faces

PurposeThe other-race effect shows that people are better recognizing faces from their own-race compared to other-race faces. This effect can have dramatic consequences in applied scenarios whereby face identification is paramount, such as eyewitness identification. This study investigates observers’ insights into their ability to recognize own- and other-race faces.Design/methodology/approachChinese ethnic observers performed objective measures of own- and other-race face recognition —the Cambridge Face Memory Test Chinese and the Cambridge Face Memory Test original—, the PI20 —a 20-items self-reported measured of general face recognition abilities—, and the ORE20 —a new developed 20-items self-reported measure of other-race face recognition—. FindingsRecognition of own-race faces was better compared to other-race faces. This effect was also evident at a phenomenological level, as observers reported to be worse recognizing other-race faces compared to own-race faces. Additionally, although a moderate correlation was found between own-race face recognition abilities and the PI20, individual differences in the recognition of other-race faces was only poorly associated with observers’ scores in the ORE20. ImplicationsThese results suggest that observers’ insights to recognize faces are more consistent and reliable for own-race faces. Practical implicationsSelf-reported measures of other-race recognition could produce misleading results. Thus, when evaluating eyewitness’ accuracy identifying other-race faces, objective measures should be employed.

Future Directions for Research Examining the Notion of Familiarity and Its Impact on the Criminal Justice System

This chapter provides a summary of the goals of the book and offers a look to the future in eyewitness familiarity research. The chapter addresses why there has been limited research examining familiarity within an eyewitness context. Next, it describes the current state of the field in terms of studying familiarity through four themes: (1) the limited amount of research utilizing familiarity in an eyewitness context; (2) the importance of focusing on system variables, such as police practices and procedures, that may exacerbate errors in familiarity cases; (3) the importance of understanding the interaction between familiarity and estimator variables that may increase or decrease eyewitness accuracy; and (4) the influence of familiarity claims in the courtroom. This chapter concludes with a discussion of the importance of studying familiarity in terms of the criminal justice system.

Familiarity and Conviction in the Criminal Justice System

Eyewitnesses are likely to have some degree of familiarity with a perpetrator when a crime is committed. Despite the fact that the majority of crimes are committed by someone with whom the victim/witness is familiar, the majority of eyewitness research has focused on the identification of stranger perpetrators. It is critical to examine how familiarity may influence eyewitness accuracy. Familiarity can vary from a complete stranger to a very familiar other. This book explores the “middle ground” as it relates to the criminal justice system, namely describing perpetrators, eyewitness identification, and jury decision-making. The purpose of this book is to consolidate the literature that exists regarding familiarity and to apply this research to an eyewitness context. This book attempts to better understand how familiarity may impact eyewitnesses and to highlight key considerations when an eyewitness is familiar with a perpetrator while collecting eyewitness evidence and using it in a courtroom. This is achieved through an in-depth discussion of the definition of familiarity, the examination of critical social psychological and cognitive theory in relation to familiarity, a description of the current literature examining eyewitness familiarity, a discussion of familiarity evidence in the courtroom, and a proposal for future directions and research.

Alcohol myopia and the distracting effects of hair in face recognition

Background: According to alcohol myopia theory, alcohol reduces cognitive resources and restricts the drinker’s attention to only the more prominent aspects of a visual scene. As human hairstyles are often salient and serve as important facial recognition cues, we consider whether alcohol restricts attention to this region of faces upon initial viewing. Aims: Participants with higher breath alcohol concentrations just prior to encoding a series of unfamiliar faces were expected to be poorer than more sober counterparts at recognising the internal but not external features of those faces at test. Methods: Drinkers in a nearby bar ( n=76) were breathalysed and then shown a sequence of 21 full face photos. After a filled five-minute retention interval they completed a facial recognition task requiring them to identify the full, internal or external region of each of these among a sequence of 21 previously unseen (part or whole) faces. Results: As predicted, higher breath concentrations were associated with poorer discrimination of internal but not external face regions. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that alcohol restricts unfamiliar face encoding by narrowing the scope of attention to the exterior region of unfamiliar faces. This has important implications for drunk eyewitness accuracy, though further investigation is needed to see if the effect is mediated by gender, hair length and face feature distinctiveness.