Abstracts Psychology

Correctidentification decisions: How to obtain them and how to judgethem

by Kristina S Kaminski

False eyewitness identifications as well as erroneous judgments of identification decisions in court have been shown to contribute to wrongful convictions in many criminal cases (Garrett, 2008, 2011, 2012). The present dissertation reports three experiments, which were aimed to investigate a new system variable (Wells, 1978) to increase identification accuracy as well as to analyze fact finders´ judgmental processes when evaluating the accuracy of an identification decision. In Experiment 1, potentially beneficial effects of re-reading one´s own person description prior to the identification task were examined (Cutler, Penrod, O´Rourke, & Martens, 1986; Sporer, 2007). Moreover, description effects on identification accuracy were investigated under more realistic retention intervals, expecting a verbal facilitation effect instead of verbal overshadowing (Schooler & Engstler-Schooler, 1990). Participants watched a video film (1) without describing the perpetrator (no description control group), (2) with describing the perpetrator or (3) with describing and re-reading their own description prior to the identification task. Two days or five weeks later all participants were asked to identify the perpetrator in a target-absent or target-present lineup. As predicted from a context reinstatement framework, results revealed higher identification accuracy after re-reading compared to the control group. Moreover, there was a tendency for a verbal facilitation effect with the likelihood of a correct identification decision being almost three times higher when the perpetrator was described compared to the control condition. In Experiment 2, the Brunswikian lens model (Brunswik, 1956, 1965) was applied to the evaluation of eyewitness identifications. To explain observers´ judgment accuracy when evaluating the accuracy of an identification decision it was examined (1) which cues observers use to evaluate an identification decision (”subjective utilities”), (2) how they interpret and weight these cues, and (3) if these cues as perceived by observers are indeed related to identification accuracy ('ecological validities'). Study 1 presented participant-observers with literal transcripts of 48 choosers´ identification decisions, whereas Study 2 used the original videotapes. A “think-aloud” method was applied to make discriminating cues more salient to observers, which was compared to retrospective reasoning protocols. Both studies demonstrated that observers used the investigated cues as indicators of identification accuracy independently of type of decision protocol. However, only when think-aloud protocols were evaluated cues discriminated between correct and incorrect identifications resulting in a high correspondence between subjective utilities and ecological validities. Advantages of think-aloud methods and videotapes to increase fact finders´ judgment accuracy when evaluating identification decisions are discussed. In Experiment 3, persuasive effects of different peripheral measures (i.e., speech style and attributed witness…