Does post-identification feedback affect evaluations of eyewitness testimony and identification procedures?
Publication Title
Law and Human Behavior
Document Type
Article
Department or Program
Psychology
Publication Date
2010
Keywords
Eyewitness memory, Post-identification feedback, Testimony
Abstract
Two experiments were conducted to test whether post-identification feedback affects evaluations of eyewitnesses. In Experiment 1 (N = 156), evaluators viewed eyewitness testimony. They evaluated witnesses who received confirming post-identification feedback as more accurate and more confident, among other judgments, compared with witnesses who received disconfirming post-identification feedback or no feedback. This pattern persisted regardless of whether the witness's confidence statement was included in the testimony. In Experiment 2 (N = 161), witness evaluators viewed the actual identification procedure in which feedback was delivered. Instructions to disregard the feedback were manipulated. Again, witnesses who received confirming feedback were assessed more positively. This pattern occurred even when witness evaluators received instructions to disregard the feedback. These experiments are the first to confirm researchers' assumptions that feedback effects on witnesses translate to changes in judgments of those witnesses. © 2009 American Psychology-Law Society/Division 41 of the American Psychological Association.
Recommended Citation
Douglass, A. B., Neuschatz, J. S., Imrich, J., & Wilkinson, M. (2010). Does Post-identification Feedback Affect Evaluations of Eyewitness Testimony and Identification Procedures? Law and Human Behavior, 34(4), 282–294. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10979-009-9189-5
PubMed ID
19585229
Comments
Original version is available from the publisher at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10979-009-9189-5