Do prophylactics prevent inflation? Post-identification feedback and the effectiveness of procedures to protect against confidence-inflation in earwitnesses

Publication Title

Law and Human Behavior

Document Type

Article

Department or Program

Psychology

Publication Date

2009

Keywords

Confidence prophylactic, Delay, Earwitness, Post-identification feedback

Abstract

After viewing or hearing a recorded simulated crime, participants were asked to identify the offender's voice from a target-absent audio lineup. After making their voice identification, some participants were either given confirming feedback or no feedback. The feedback manipulation in experiment 1 led to higher ratings of participants' identification certainty, as well as higher ratings on retrospective confidence reports, in both the immediate and delay groups. Earwitnesses who were asked about their identification certainty prior to the feedback manipulation (experiment 2) did not demonstrate the typical confidence-inflation associated with confirming feedback if they were questioned about the witnessing experience immediately; however, the effects returned after a week-long retention interval. The implications for the differential forgetting and internal-cues hypotheses are discussed. © 2008 American Psychology-Law Society/Division 41 of the American Psychological Association.

Comments

Original version is available from the publisher at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10979-008-9132-1

PubMed ID

18561008

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